The Wolf and His Vixen
by Thugs Bunny 009
Summary: He had heard of dimensional rifts but he didn't think he would ever fall into one on his way to the Demon World to end up in Wonderland. That was not on the agenda. fem!Naruto
1. Only Needs Two

**Disclaimer: I don't own Togashi's masterpiece: YuYu Hakusho or Kishimoto's shipwreck: Naruto**

* * *

It started off simple. Jump in a portal the boys in blue opened up for him to seal him and his potentially godly power away in fear of eradicating the world and venture through the dimensional drift separating the human world from the demon world. Then things got a little bumpy. Either one of the Special Defence Forces goofed up or the dimensional tunnel between worlds wasn't properly fixed since the whole Sensui fiasco.

Regardless of the reason Yusuke was screwed once a hole opened up underneath him and took him to another plane of existence just as fast.

The next thing he knew he was in a forest with a sky that wasn't the colour red signifying the malevolent atmosphere of the demon world. The myriad of low reiki signatures to his senses further gave him evidence that he wasn't in the demon world. The few unnaturally high reiki signatures he could sense were scattered around the lands like rare prized weapons. Interestingly enough, the amount of malevolence that embodied a huge majority of the A-class reiki signatures left him with the impression that they weren't humans.

Reflecting on the many low reiki signatures (that easily superseded the unnaturally high ones) Yusuke deduced that was possibly the case. He soon found out his suspicions were right when he stumbled upon the first city in sight. Only the first thing he had to do upon being surrounded by cloaked, masked warriors that called themselves "ninjas" was avoid getting taken captive. They wanted him to bow down docilely, be a good boy and come with them. Anyone who knew Yusuke Urameshi knew he did not _bow down_, to anyone.

With five insanely fast punches delivered to his would-be assailants, they were knocked into unconsciousness.

That day became the famous day Konoha's elite soldiers were overpowered by one man. Every solder of significance could barely even stand up to a punch from Yusuke. Admittedly, their fighting styles were diverse and consisted of a wide range of colourful jutsus, but despite their rather expansive repertoire of jutsus, they lacked power, or speed for that matter. Decently quick as they were, any C-class warrior could've replicated their speed with notable ease, and even Toguro could've exterminated them with sheer brute force alone.

From a one-eyed masked-guy, to a chain-smoker, to a red-eyed beauty whom specialized in illusions, to a snake-possessed freaky lady with a nice rack, to a scarred-head man and even an eccentric, green possessed Kung fu dude whom was the closest to Toguro, they all succumbed to Yusuke's superior power. The last one, the green possessed man, lasted the longest by turning the colour of his tanned skin red, but even then he only lasted a few minutes before going down for the count.

Their leader, an old man whom looked like he should be in an retirement home like his old mentor, Genkai, didn't flare any better against Yusuke either.

Once the village was tamed explanations were given and by explanations were given it was them laying out the deal about the world he had unwittingly landed himself in. Yusuke didn't tell them squat about himself. Apparently, their initial show of distrust was due to them being "ninjas" like the first group of challengers stated. Yusuke found that difficult to swallow. The real ninjas he were familiarized with weren't super-powered individuals dressed as mercenaries shooting fire balls, spamming tornadoes, trapping dudes in illusions known as "genjutus" and creating waterfalls with pools of water.

They were silent warriors of the night waiting for the ideal opportunity to take their target's life.

These "ninjas" came off as more as wizard-esque mercenaries for hire.

He did have the option of simply usurping the village and claiming their allegiance since he hadn't killed anyone, but he was unsure. Sure being a lord of a bunch of weaklings sounded nice and all, but Yusuke wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of responsibility, especially since he needed to get back to where he came from. He did discreetly enquire if any of his new tenants possessed such a dimensional jutsu, but alas, none did.

The leader, Hiruzen Sarutobi, recommended he become a ninja of the village to gain experience and to see if the life of a ruler was for him. After mentioning all the potential missions he could go on the adventurous side of Yusuke bought him the deal. He didn't even have to go through the mandatory academy since he was already the most powerful warrior in the village. He could just wait until graduation day came along.

The most noticeable question Yusuke asked that made the hairs on the back of Hiruzen's neck stand on end was why one of the insurmountable reiki signatures was situated right here in Konoha. It turns out the A-class reiki signature he was sensing belonged to a Bijuu, a chakra beast of immense power. They were eight others all in all that once belonged to Konoha, but the first Hokage gave them away in the name of peace.

What the fuck?

Yusuke had to clean out his ears to make sure he heard right.

What idiot gave away his weapons, for _peace?_

That was like Russia ambassadors gift wrapping all their top weapons except their very best to all their enemies with massive grins on their faces, "No wars now!"

This first Hokage guy was one of the biggest saps Yusuke had ever heard of.

Whatever. Turns out the Bijuus were shoved in humans, thus making the humans "jinchuurikis."

They weren't liked and Konoha's was no exemption to rule.

It showed because when Yusuke met and acknowledged the girl whom housed the chakra beast she loved him instantly.

XxX

The Wolf and His Vixen

**C**

**H**

**A**

**P**

**T**

**E**

**R**

**ONE**

Only Needs Two

"Hey, Yu-chan!"

Yusuke Urameshi awoke to the chirpy shrill voice of a girl, feeling a weight land on his back.

With a groan, Yusuke lackadaisically flopped onto his back, brushing his shoulder against the developing chest of his alarm clock as she landed square on his chest with a light hearted giggle.

With a rub of his eye with the back of his hand, he found two shockingly bright blond messy ponytails on his chest.

"Good morning to you too, Naru?" He sarcastically said with a groggily, raspy tone, stifling a yawn with his hand, "Someone's in a good mood, but I guess that's just business as usual, huh?"

Lifting up her head from his chest to show him two clear innocent blue eyes lit-up with fiery excitement, Naruko Uzumaki sat back on her knees to cheerily throw her arms up in the air, the strap of the white vest she was wearing that was several sizes too big for her form slid seamlessly back onto her shoulder, "How can't I be? Today's the day I finally get to be a ninja!" She jumped down on Yusuke to wrap her arms around his neck, squirming her body happily over his, "And it's all 'cause of you, Yu-chan! Thank you!"

As the sound of skin making contact briefly and rapidly with skin echoed through the air from Naruko's multiple lip caresses of Yusuke's face and lips, the smothered black-haired young man began to mentally recall the blond-haired girl's previous dilemma that previously prohibited her from passing the graduation exam.

You know, for a girl who housed an A-class chakra beast of unconquerable power, he figured the old man in charge would be a little more willing to ensure the potentially second most powerful shinobi in the world after him would succeed at all costs. Granted, Yusuke understood he didn't want to show favouritism, but come on, this was still an invaluable soldier-in the making.

If this world's nations were really at each other's throats as he claimed then shouldn't the village be doing everything in their power to ensure Naruko, the girl housing their weapon the equivalent of a nuke in his world, would be up to snuff with the best of them in the academy?

If the leader was taking his other one-dimensional citizens into account whom couldn't look past their petty hatred of the girl to see a potentially powerful fighter then he really shouldn't.

At least that was what Yusuke told him the day he marched into his office and all but demanded in his usual brash-demeanour if the old man had another technique to compensate for Naruko failed attempt to pull off the clone jutsu. It turned out he did indeed possess such a jutsu that would be quite easy for Naruko to do considering her enormous chakra reserves that were almost equal to a B-class demon in Yusuke's own world.

To her initial dismay, it was another clone jutsu, but after Yusuke explained this variation of the technique enabled the user to perform several solid clones of himself/herself by dividing their chakra/reiki equally among their clones, she smiled hopefully and got right to training to master it.

As it turned out it was decidedly easy to master as she added the technique to her small repertoire of skills in less than a day like any good fighting genius would've done.

"Alright, I hear ya, I'm the greatest there ever was," Yusuke said tepidly, pushing himself up with Naruko in his arms, the girl's lips puckered out desperately to kiss his cheek again, "Let's just get dressed, preferably in our own duds and not each other's."

"Aw," Naruko pouted, curling her hands toward the side of her face, "But I like wearing your threads, Yu-chan!" She hugged herself, swinging her nigh flat boarded body from side to side, "They're comfy."

"Oh really?" Yusuke asked with a wry fanged smirk etched onto his visage.

Naruko giggled seeing the adorable fangs she adored so very much sticking out of Yusuke's lips. She even had another pet name for him whenever he would show them to her, "Yep, Wolf-chan!"

"Didn't know this," Yusuke said satirically.

"Well you do now, sweetie!" Naruko stated chirpily, swinging her arms around the neck of her partner.

"Perhaps I should start getting myself double pairs of each next time I head out into town if the clothes expert keeps validating each of my duds like this," His quip drew a giggle from the whiskered cheek girl holding him in her grasp.

"Or maybe we could just switch wardrobes, huh?" Naruko said, throwing the idea out there in a playful demeanour, "That oughta be oodles of fun, right? Wearing each other's clothes instead of our own."

And that sucked out all the fun from Yusuke's face like a super-powered vacuum-cleaner gathering up dust. Not even a roguish sneer lingered, "No," He deadpanned, wrapping an arm around Naruko's rear to bring her up with him when he manoeuvred his legs to the ground to stand up, getting the girl to tie her legs around his waist, "Think I'll stick to my own."

"Oh well," Naruko shrugged, still smiling impishly, "Worth a shot."

"If ya wanna look it from that angle then go right ahead," Yusuke urged with a shrug of casual dismissal of his own shoulders, "Anyway, it's about high time we got washed and geared up for the day, don't you think?" The implications made Naruko's eyes light up with cheerful recognition.

"Yay, it's shower-time with Yu-chan!"

"Heh, took the words right out of my mouth baby."

XxX

The two solar-powered stamina lovebirds stepped out of their shared apartment on the top floor of a humble little apartment complex.

The man of the two was dressed in a white short-sleeved t shirt underneath a short-sleeved green dress shirt left open to display his gun pendant dangling from his neck, beige, baggy trousers, and open-toed sandals to give him a semblance of absolute silence when moving around. Like any leaf mercenary, Yusuke's own leaf headband was tied around his waist like a belt.

The girl on his arm also wore a top of her favourite colour, orange in the form of a sleeveless V-neck orange blouse over a long-sleeved white coloured shirt. Additionally, the open space around her neck left it perfect for her to exhibit her golden necklace that had the initials "Y/U" stuck together and her own left headband. Fixed on her forehead were a pair of goggles.

The reminder of her attire consisted of black leggings underneath blue three quarter shorts and, like any aspiring and veteran shinobi would wear, a pair of open-toed sandals fitted on her feet. Only difference between hers and Yusuke's was that hers were orange while Yusuke's were green.

Briefly passing their landlord, Naruko found she couldn't suppress the giggle that seeped through her lips at seeing the man cringe upon coming into brief, short contact with her Yusuke-chan and his aura of cool indifference.

In fact as they ventured through the City-sized village on their journey to the academy, similar reactions were evoked from the surrounding nondescript civilians just by Yusuke's presence alone. It honestly made her laugh, the kind of laugh one did when they felt they had gotten justice.

Before Yusuke (who had quickly become the bane of everyone's existence) stepped into her life Naruko was treated with contempt. They glared at her with evident anger, mainly because she had forced their recognition through retaliatory pranks, and even ignored her as if she was just a random dust of wind that had blown inexplicably by.

They had all changed once Yusuke rolled up into town. He had turned the first asshole who looked at her wrong black and blue. What was even cooler to Naruko was Yusuke's unbelievably high regard among the ninja forces of Konoha, so much so that an anbu appeared before him after his beat down of a random civilian and _bowed_ respectfully to him.

Such reverence shown to a single young man that he could blatantly commit a transgression in broad daylight and have it overlooked was staggering to Naruko.

The poor girl almost fainted.

As for the civilians that once harboured disdain and hatred for Naruko, the old saying "Better with the devil they knew" couldn't have been more appropriate. Naruko was kind, bubbly, and although she was mischievous with her pranks, they were never outright devilish, always playfully innocent.

The guy, who she had grown fiercely attached to, was devilishly cold, aloof, and contained a mean streak he wasn't afraid to share with anyone he deemed as enemies. Unlike Naruko, who was rather passive to their contempt of her, Yusuke was assertive and made his ill feelings of their disrespect of her known through violence.

He honestly scared them in line.

"What squads do ya reckon we'll get Yu-chan?" Naruko asked, doodling timidly on his arm, "I hope I'm with you."

"Then you'll be surprised." Yusuke assured with flippant dismissal.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruko asked blankly, staring up at the dispassionate visage of Yusuke.

"Exactly as it's implied," The green-clad man said, prematurely bringing his and Naruko's trek to an end, drawing several blinks from the girl, "Look sharp," He tossed a perfunctory thumb over his shoulder, "We got company."

Turning her head over her shoulder, Naruko's expression of incomprehension morphed into one of dry recognition at the sight of a box that had taken a few steps forward before quickly anchoring itself in place when Naruko had pinned her eyes on it, "Didn't know boxes had feet," The ponytailed girl said with sarcasm oozing from her tone.

"Me either," Yusuke said in kind, bending down to pick up a little pebble, "This should do the trick though." Chucking the little stone tepidly over his head and onto the wooden box, he evoked a cry of agony and an eruption of smoke to echo through the air.

"Oh, that was cruel, Yu~chan," Naruko said, holding her hand to her mouth to stifle her giggles.

"Hopefully, that'll teach Shit-for-Brains a trick or two about stalking us," Yusuke grinned puckishly.

"Dunno about that. He is a tenacious little guy," Naruko cheerfully mocked.

"Unfortunately."

The sound of little feet shuffling across the dirt ground of Konoha met their ears, right before a small child of nine years of age appeared at the side of Yusuke. His long brown spiky hair was tied up in a ponytail and was covered by silver head wear. For whatever reason, he sported a ludicrously long scarf around his neck that reached his feet. Naturally, he occasionally tripped over it, but that wouldn't stop him from wearing what he believed distinguished him from the rest.

The rest of his dorky gear comprised of a little short-sleeved shirt with the symbol of the leaf village printed on the front: a six-styled orange leaf that looked more like a six then anything else. Yusuke had originally thought it was a six when he first arrived in Konoha and proceeded to take everyone whom asses were significant to the cleaners.

Situated on his forehead were a pair of goggles akin to Naruko's to keep the bangs out of his eyes. Beige shorts resembling the colour of Yusuke's pants reached his knees and his wore sandals on his feet.

"Ah! Amazing! You were able to locate my positioning Yusuke-sama," The boy said with mock sagacity, little arms sat over his chest as he nodded his head seriously, "You truly are worthy of leading this great village someday, boss."

"Thanks for the speck of endorsement, Shit-for-Brains," Yusuke said in a wry fashion.

"Yu-chan," Naruko smiled with a chiding tone, "Be nice to Konohamaru-chan. He's giving ya his allegiance, isn't he?"

"No, it's alright, Lady Naruko," Konohamaru assured with a passionate fire of determination lighting up his eyes, holding up a righteous fist trembling from barely contained vigour, "I, Konohamaru Sarutobi, is not yet worthy of Yusuke-sama's recognition!"

Naruko shook her head with a dry smile. Yesterday, when she and Yusuke had gone to get their ninja identification cards done they had run into Konohamaru.

The boy had impulsively charged into an academy classroom where they were situated at the time to "kill" his grandfather, the Hokage, to claim his hat before clumsily tripping over his own scarf.

He had originally blamed Yusuke for his fall until Naruko brashly grabbed and told him he tripped over his own scarf. She briefly hesitated to discipline him when his sensei, who had come to collect him, informed them that he was the honourable grandson of the third Hokage but any sense of hesitancy she initially had went right out of the window when he had taunted her about it.

Then she knocked him straight into next week.

Yusuke, showing he didn't care about the third, flicked him down with his index finger, and took off with Naruko.

Possessed with Yusuke's show of power, Konohamaru tracked the two down and profusely begged that he take him on as his disciple. With nothing else better to do that day, Yusuke agreed only on the condition Konohamaru passed an initial introductory test to which the excited boy agreed upon.

Only, once he started "training" he began to wonder if his new "sensei" was just getting him to run his errands for him. The sessions he had him doing pretty much consisted of manual labour, only to an extreme extent. By dawn Konohamaru's real sensei showed up to demand he stay away from them but was easily humiliated by Yusuke.

Konohamaru then admitted he wanted to be Hokage so he could be recognized for his own achievements, not the ones of his grandfather's. Naruko, empathizing with Konohamaru's desire for positive recognition even if she didn't desire anyone else's other than Yusuke's, told him it took more than just inheritance to be Hokage.

It took blood, sweat, and tears all brought about by hard work.

That was why she gritted her teeth and stuck to Yusuke's training courses, no matter how absurdly stupid they got.

Konohamaru eat up Naruko's cheesy speech and was reformed.

"Well keep working hard and I'm sure you'll get it in no time flat!" Naruko said mockingly, getting Konohamaru to pump his fist.

"Count it lady Naruko," He said, though changed the subject with some awkwardness before an awkward silence could descend upon them, "So where are you guys going?"

"To the Academy," Yusuke said bluntly, tossing a finger in the direction of the aforementioned establishment.

"We're getting assigned to our squads today," Naruko added on happily, causing Konohamaru's eyes to light up.

"Awesome!" He said cheerily, though crossed his arms with a sulky pout, "Aw, man! I wish I could graduate already, but Ebisu-sensei says I still got another three years," He whined, "It's just not fair!" He felt the warm hand of Naruko land squarely on his head before ruffling his hair.

"Cheer up, buddy, because before you know it you'll be able to graduate in no time at all, believe it."

"Thanks," Konohamaru smiled, folding his head over his head in a happy-go-lucky demeanour, a cheesy smile dominating his face, "I do hope you and Boss get placed on the same squad tho, lady Naruko. I'll be rooting for that."

"Me too."

"Me three..."

XxX

(Later – At the Academy)

XxX

After leaving Konohamaru, the two continued on their trek onward to the academy, a building that was neighboured next to the Hokage's building. Yusuke hazarded to guess the sappy first Hokage wanted the students to look out of the window and gaze upon the tower for inspirational in case the work ever got too much for them.

Once the two had found the registration classroom the other graduating students of Naruko's year group were situated Yusuke calmly opened the door with the sole of his foot and once he did, Naruko drew in a breath of fond reminiscence.

"Hmm! You know, for as much trouble as I've had in this place, I'm almost sad to have to leave it," Naruko explained, following Yusuke's lead up the stairs to the top row.

"Why?" Yusuke asked with zero attachment to the academy, "Don't see the big deal about this shaolin monk temple personally."

"That's 'cuz you never had to attend a class here Mr loophole," Naruko teased.

"Point taken," Yusuke conceded in a plain, straightforward manner, "But my point still stands."

"Guess it's just nostalgia taking affect on me y'know?" Naruko shrugged.

"Makes sense I suppose," Yusuke said, coming across two of the only few handful of students he knew with his head perched on his desk, and that was only because they and a few others occasionally hung out, "Yo couch potato!" He nudged the sleeping teen with his foot, prompting him to groan drowsily, "What's the matter, sleepy? Can't say hi to your amigo now?"

The aforementioned couch potato lifted his pineapple-styled hair off of his desk to send Yusuke a perfunctory glare, drawing a faux smile of innocence from him in return, "Gah, man. Did you have to wake me? Just had a nice dream about clouds," He said, placing his elbow on the surface of his desk to lean his cheek onto.

"Question here is, do ya want an answer to that or not?" Yusuke said with a troll face, "Shikamaru."

"Guess not," Shikamaru groaned lackadaisically, "Dealing with you two is such a drag."

Naruko giggled, switching her attention from Shikamaru to a big-boned individual stuffing his serious mug with a handful of crisp rapidly, "Hi ya, Chouji. What's packing?"

The aforementioned Chouji released visible air fumes from his nostrils at the insinuation of Naruko's playful question, causing Shikamaru to groan and slap his face.

"Oh man," The pineapple-headed young shinobi groaned, "You made him mad."

"Hey," Chouji said curtly, burying his hand into his packet of crisp to drag out another handful to stuff into his mouth.

"Hey, what's happening Tubbs McKenzie? Did another restaurant establishment "miraculously" run out of business?" Yusuke said in a satirical fashion, drawing another frustrated groan from Shikamaru.

"Hey! I'm not fat! I'm just big-boned!" Chouji roared with his eyes dilated in anger, drawing a laugh from Yusuke and an apologetic grin from Naruko.

"That's what Eric Cartman said before his chubby ass got trucked off to fat camp," He said before leading Naruko over to their desk in a saunter, chortling Chouji's glare off, "Say hi to him would ya?"

"Bye guys!" Naruko waved cheerily at Shikamaru and Chouji before falling in step with Yusuke, "That was cruel, Yu-chan."

"But funny," Yusuke retorted, reaching the top row and shuffling into the space, stopping next to a spiky-headed black-haired teen with his arms nonchalantly folded behind his head. He exchanged a brief nod with this silhouetted teen whom opened an eye to acknowledge his presence.

"But cruel all the same," Naruko countered, waiting for Yusuke to take his sit next to the black-haired young man before propping herself sideways on his lap, swinging her legs over his other leg.

"And that's why it's funny," Yusuke insisted, wrapping his arms around Naruko's waist.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Naruko whined with a flail of her arms, "That's like saying humour comes at the expense of others."

"'Cause it does," Yusuke explained, deciding to elucidate further at Naruko's look of disbelief, "Humour isn't always pretty, babes. Why do you think all the shows that utilize violence so frequently in their humour are revered so passionately? 'Cause watching another guy be roosted comically is damned right entertaining."

"Well I still don't like it!" Naruko said stubbornly, crossing her arms and turning away from Yusuke, "Being an asshole to others for the sake of a few laughs! It's all wrong if you ask me!"

Yusuke shook his head wryly, nudging the young man beside him suggestively, "Got myself a little Miss do-gooder here." Naruko twirled her head to glare at Yusuke before giving him the cold shoulder, but interestingly enough still wouldn't leave the warmth of his lap.

"Anyway, how you been Sasuke?" Yusuke asked the young man beside him in a casual-demeanour, deciding his girl needed some time to cool off.

Sasuke of course had a headband, only his was sat where Naruko's and Yusuke's arguably should've been, his forehead. Two bangs of Sasuke's hair, which had streaks of blue mixed into it, framed his oval, womanly face. He wore a blue collared shirt that exhibited the clan's symbol on his back, a pair of white armbands on his arms, white shorts that reached his knees, and a couple of sandals fitted on his feet.

"Not bad," Sasuke said simply, preferring to speak in the fewest words as possible like Yusuke's good friend, Hiei.

"Good, Good," Yusuke said, propping his elbow up on the top of his desk, "Looking forward to socializing with your incoming teammates?"

Sasuke's left eye glanced at Yusuke in a suspicious manner, "How did you come across this information?"

"Got the old man in the big chair to tell me," Yusuke explained in a flippant manner.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, bringing his hands from his head to place his elbows on the surface of his desk to intertwine his hands in what he liked to call his thinking pose, "Only you," He said, getting Yusuke to puff out his own chest in a mock prideful fashion, "I supposed the team arrangements will be fine, so long as I can amass power to accomplish my goal."

Naruko felt her eyes widen involuntarily at the feeling of serious intent Sasuke was emitting. Turning her head to Sasuke she stared blankly at his eclipsed eyes, 'Sasuke?' She worded internally, looking at Yusuke to find the unusual deadly straight-faced expression on his own face, 'Why did the mood suddenly change? Are they hiding something from me?'

Whatever the reason their stony expressions were seriously starting to creep Naruko out.

"Why, good morning, Naruko-chan."

Her attention was drawn away from the two young men silhouetted in mystery to the polite call of a young woman around her age.

"Hi there Hinata-chan."

Hinata Hyuga of the renowned Hyuga clan was one of her best friends, second only to Yusuke in that category. What used to be a weak, docile wallflower who could barely muster up two words to anybody, especially boys, was now a fairly confident young lady of royal class. All that time she had spent around the loudmouths, Yusuke and Naruko, had broken Hinata out of her overly shy demeanour.

She even gained enough gall from the arrogant lovebirds to ditch her Eskimo jacket that once embodied her excessively timid character, exposing her curvaceous figure and blossoming chest to the world. Naruko was a little jealous of Hinata if she was being honest with herself.

Hinata wore a midnight blue short-sleeved t shirt matched by pants of the same colour, accentuating her short lavender hair that reached her shoulders. Her headband was wrapped around her neck and she had sandals on her feet.

"May I sit with you?" She softly asked with her hands neatly held below her waist.

"Sure thing!" Naruko said, "Pull up a sit. Shucks, you don't even need to ask."

"Thank you, I will keep your declaration in mind in case such an occurrence arises once again," Hinata said eloquently, propping next to the seated form of Yusuke being utilized as a sit for Naruko.

"I'm gonna hold ya to that," Naruko playfully assured.

"I'll file the information away in the storage section of my memories," Hinata assured, propping her hands neatly on her lap, twirling her head from Naruko, to the man whom lap she sat on, "Hello, Yusuke-san. I trust your morning went by adequately."

"Fine if you believe getting poached on by a tigress is an adequate wake-up call," Yusuke said sarcastically, drawing a giggle from the blond girl seated on his lap.

"You know you love it really," Naruko insisted.

"Aw," Yusuke mocked-gasped, "You say that with such conviction it must be true." Naruko stuck her tongue out in a teasing fashion at Yusuke.

Hinata looked past the two to see the staring face of Sasuke looking over in her direction, "And how did you find your own morning today, Sasuke-san?"

"Uh." Sasuke hesitated, eliciting a blank stare from Naruko as he altered his view from Hinata to the window quickly, "Fine."

"That's nice." Hinata assured melodically, making Sasuke's throat feel dry.

As if sensing Sasuke's nerves, Yusuke nudged the lone solitary Uchiha suggestively with his elbow, inching his head closer to him to teasingly whisper something only he could hear, "Someone's got a little crush I see."

"You idiot." Sasuke said with a look of irritation on his face.

The door thunderously slamming open drew everyone's attention to it to find a head of distinctive pink and equally distinguished platinum blond heatedly trying to overpower the other.

"I win!" They yelled simultaneously.

"My foot crossed over the line first Ino-pig!" The cherry blossomed haired girl said, "So I get to sit next to Sasuke-kun!"

"Think again forehead-girl, my foot clearly crossed first!" The blond-haired girl said with a smug look on her face.

"Oh boy, those two get along like two peas in a pool," Naruko said sarcastically, feeling Yusuke's hands slithering underneath her legs before she felt her elevation raise from Yusuke standing up, "Yu-chan?"

"Hey!" Yusuke yelled assertively, drawing the attention of every student in the class to him, consequently bringing the bickering of the two to a premature end, "Shut up. Sasuke's sitting over here by us. Got a problem with that? Then you can take it up with me. Comprende?" He ended with menacing intent rolling off of his words, causing the two to cringe as they sadly stalked off to find two individual seats away from each other.

"That's one way to go about ending the disputation," Naruko smiled sheepishly, feeling Yusuke sit down in a grumpy demeanour.

"Good job shutting them up," Sasuke said.

"Don't mention it. They would've done all our heads in had I never," Yusuke said.

"Don't remind me," Sasuke said, rubbing the side of his neck, "Fools. Instead of chasing me they would be better off focusing on improving their non-existent repertoire of techniques."

"But they're not that bad," Naruko said in defence of the criticism the pink and blond-haired girls faced, "At least they're nice."

"If you say so," Sasuke said nonchalantly.

A tan-skinned man followed by a white-haired man ambled into the classroom. Both were wearing the official Chunin/Jounin uniform which included of a green flaked jacket over a long-sleeved navy blue jumper, blue pants, and sandals on their feet. The only thing that distinguished the brown-haired man from other nondescript shinobi was the scar engraved across his nose.

"Well done!" He said, once the two were in the middle of the class, "You have all done magnificently during your time here in the academy, and it fills me with a great deal of pride to see you all exhibiting the headbands that marks you all as proud leaf shinobi."

"Aw, the sap's preaching away," Yusuke said acerbically, prompting Sasuke to nod in agreement as he situated his fist against his cheek, "Such inspirational stuff, yeesh."

"Be nice. Iruka-sensei's not a bad guy-."

"Oh no, he's not a bad guy," Yusuke said in a sardonic fashion, "Just really bland."

"Is there ever a moment where you're not a jerk?" Naruko asked with a shake of her head, evoking a grin of devilry from Yusuke.

"Think you of all people know the answer to that one babes," Yusuke whispered, making Naruko blush.

"Guess so."

"To round it all off, each of you will be placed in a three man squad." Iruka said, seemingly finishing off his cheesy speech Yusuke had tuned out.

"You were right all along." Sasuke said.

"Like there ever was a doubt I wasn't. You're looking at the number one telepathic on the block here," Yusuke joked with a thumb jerked at himself, evoking a giggle from Naruko.

"To create balanced teams, we've explicitly made sure to team up high attributes such as strength for example with other strong attributes, like speed," The scarred faced chunin explained, ruffling the sheet of papers in front of him for emphasis, "So, without further ado, squad one of comprise of-."

"Borrrrring~!" Yusuke's loud, dispassionate voice interrupted Iruka, making him sigh.

"Yusu-."

"Hey, I know what team we're on. Can we just split? Sitting here seems pointless after all," Yusuke said, eliciting a gawking expression from the girl on his lap.

"Okay. Sure. Just be reserved on your way out if you could." Iruka requested with a docile sigh.

"No promises," Yusuke said, standing up with Naruko held in his arms bridal style, "See ya on the flip side Sasuke."

"Uh. Okay," Sasuke said with a goggled expression, trying to comprehend why they could just vamoose and why Yusuke seemed so knowledgeable, 'Just how respected is this guy?'

"Good bye Naruko-chan." Hinata said.

"Err, see ya later, Hinata," Naruko said awkwardly, being carried past Hinata, down the stairs, and out of the room in the arms of a smug-faced Yusuke, "What just happened?"

"That, milady, is the privilege of being held in high regard by the village leader himself," Yusuke explained, sauntering through the hallway.

"Does this mean…"

Yusuke smirked, "Exactly as it implies. You and I are our own team. Just the two of us."

"Yay!" Naruko threw her arms in the air, then wrapped them around Yusuke's neck to drew his face toward hers, smashing her lips against his. Their tongues immediately met in the centre of their lips, dancing with the other as they sucked in each other's breath. Naruko's hands caressed Yusuke's cheeks as she moaned, gently kicking as if she were in a pool.

When they broke apart Naruko eyed Yusuke with admiration.

"Love ya, Yu-chan."

"Back at cha, princess."

* * *

**Stats**

**Yusuke**

**Strength: God level**

**Speed: God level**

**Stamina: God level**

**Intelligence: 3**

**Techniques: 4**

**Total: God Almighty **

* * *

**Naruko**

**Strength: 2**

**Speed: 1:5**

**Taijutsu: 1**

**Genjutsu: 0**

**Stamina: 4**

**Intelligence: 2**

**Ninjutsu: 2**

**Hand seals: 1**

**Total: 13:5**

* * *

**The only other pairing might be Sasuke/Hinata or Rock Lee/Hinata. Which do you think would be best?**


	2. Burden of the Past

**Disclaimer: I don't own Togashi's masterpiece: YuYu Hakusho or Kishimoto's trainwreck: Naruto.  
**

**Due to the helpful recommendation of one reviewer, I've decided "The Wolf and His Vixen" is a more eye-catching title.**

* * *

Sleeping ungracefully away on her and Yusuke's shared bed making it blatantly apparent she was dreaming about her teammate by the happy mumbles of "Yu-chan" consequently followed by giggles that broke through her lips, Naruko's peaceful visage scrunched in perturbation by the shine that hit her face and literally burst the bubble that was coming out of her nostrils.

"Up and Adams," The cool voice of the object of her dreams hit her ears in reality.

Back in Yusuke's vest and briefs with her legs folded inwards in a triangle, she blurrily opened her eyes, turning her head to the direction she heard Yusuke's voice to find the aforementioned young man standing by the curtains with a cigarette in his fingers, "Five more minutes," She mumbled in a slothful manner, closing her eyes again to drift off to dream-Yusuke.

Rolling his eyes, Yusuke sauntered out of their room whilst taking a drag out of his cigarette. When he returned, he seemingly exhaled the drag he inhaled with a bucket of water held in a lazy grip in his other hand, which he proceeded to inevitably chuck on the lethargic girl, giving her a whole new definition of "rude awakening."

She sputtered loudly, flailing her arms wildly as though she were trying to fight off some invisible enemy only she was aware of; her borrowed garments now sticking to her skin.

"Ow! Whatcha do that for!?" She said, shooting up into a sitting position, her eyes now wide awake with fiery rage.

"Ah. Decided to join me after all," Yusuke said in a rhetoric fashion just to get underneath Naruko's skin for shit and giggles, drawing in another ounce of richly tobacco, "And here I thought I would've had to perform CPR on ya," The plumes of smoke actually wafting from his nostrils accentuated his nonchalance to Naruko's mighty glare.

"Hmuph! You didn't have to splash me y'know," She said in a pouty voice, shaking her body for emphasis, causing a myriad of droplets to bounce off of her form, "Woulda got up on my own just fine."

"Oh. So that "five more minutes" didn't translate to five more hours, huh?"

"Uh. R-Right."

Yusuke deadpanned an expression at Naruko, whom nervously curled a bang of her messy hair around her index finger, trying to avoid Yusuke's gaze, though hers were always pulled to his as if done by a magnetic force.

"Stop looking at me like that."

If possible at all, the deadpanned look of Yusuke only got more intense.

"Yu-chan…"

Despite Naruko's pleading moan coupled with her finest puppy dog eyed look, Yusuke's unamused stare didn't dissipate, even when she shut her eyes hoping it would go away. On the contrary, closing her eyes only accentuated the sense of dread she felt since she reopened her eyes to find Yusuke still standing in the exact same position he was in when she shut her eyes, even his body language was exactly the same.

Not even one of his usual cruel sneers looked like breaking the eerily emotionless expression masking his face.

Naruko couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh-kay, oh-kay, oh-kay, already! I was gonna wake up in five hours!" Naruko conceded in desperation, "There! Happy? Now stop looking at me like that! Please!"

As though Naruko's admittance were the magic words, Yusuke did let up on his poker face. Only, Naru wasn't sure if his playful sneer was any better, "See? Was that really so gruelling to admit?"

Naruko crossed her arms, turning her pouty face away from Yusuke's mocking countenance, "Still don't see why I couldn't get an extra round of sleep," She muttered, "Girl needs her beauty sleep after all."

She didn't need to turn back to Yusuke to know his stony expression had returned in all. His blunt statement told her this well, "Not a chance," He elaborated when Naruko gained an widen-eyed look, "Wanna be my partner?" Naruko nodded in a shy demeanour unlike her, "Then we gotta get you up to snuff, simple as."

"Okay," Naruko whispered docilely, sliding off her legs off of the double mattress to plant her feet to the ground, springing up with a buoyant step, holding her arms out wide to resemble a bird, "Wonder why we got our own separate tag-team without the additional third member," She contemplated, cupping her chin, "I know you're the strongest guy to ever reside in the leaf village but still, it seems kinda strange."

"Look at it this way, your style of combat was the only one that was compatible to mine out of all the guys and gals in the academy," Yusuke said, smoothly lying through his teeth as he began to lead Naruko out of their shared bedroom.

A cheerful smirk adorned Naruko's whiskered face, "So we're the duo of badassery, then!"

"Uh. Suppose that's one way to look at it," Yusuke said with an awkward cringe, 'Man, did she just really call us that? Yuck. That was cheesy,' Because anyone knew when you called yourself "badass" that automatically meant you wasn't badass by definition. Then again it wasn't like she was being serious.

She never was.

Clowning around in a light-hearted fashion was just Naruko's thing.

"You're not complaining, are ya?"

"Guess not," Naruko smirked, folding her arms around Yusuke's sides to emphasize the fact that she had him all to herself, "Not when I've got this hunk of man meat all to myself."

"There you have it." Yusuke said in conceited content.

"Speaking of which, why are ya fully dressed, Yu-chan?" Naruko asked in an inquisitive fashion once the two had stepped through the bathroom, "Don't tell me you had a shower without me," Yusuke's deadpanned expression was seemingly the only answer she was going to get, "You're mean! Doing that to a girl!"

"Give it a rest already," Yusuke commanded, rapping his knuckles sternly over Naruko's golden crown, causing her to cringe. With a huff to release the escalated frustration aroused from Naruko's theatrics, the slicked back haired young man eased her worries with surprising nonchalance, "Ain't had one yet."

"Oh?" Naruko blinked, looking around the bathroom, "Then why are ya in here with me now, Yu-chan?"

"I needed a front-row seat to watch ya have your period," Yusuke answered with his famous sarcasm, getting Naruko to cringe again, "So you could brush your teeth. What else? I was just playing escort seeing as you were keen on emulating the Naras."

"Oh," Making a face of recognition with her wide open mouth, Naruko went from annoyingly theatrical to slap happy, "But we can still have a shower together later, right?"

"That is the plan. We're gonna work up a sweat during training, so we might as well wash yourselves then."

"Yay!"

The Wolf and His Vixen

**C**

**H**

**A**

**P**

**T**

**E**

**R**

Burden of the Past

Hiruzen Sarutobi was known by many famous achievements and infamous failures.

He inherited the title of "God of Shinobi" from one of his predecessors, otherwise known as the biggest sap to ever walk the village by the leaf village's guest to a lesser extent: the professor.

He was bequeathed the throne of Hokage by his other predecessor ahead of his rival and best friend, a shinobi who lived in the darkness and accomplished all the underhanded, devilish deeds Hiruzen didn't wish to burden his own soldiers with.

Whenever one or all even all three names of legend were mentioned in awed whispers, fingers pointed at him as the quintessential instigator for the birth of the trio of renowned shinobi who, together, had been bestowed the title "the Legendary sannin" by an even stronger ninja in the Third Great Shinobi War.

And, how could anyone forget he was head of the prestigious Sarutobi clan; a clan well known for the birth of many highly accomplished shinobi throughout history.

Despite his status, title, and many famed achievements that clearly superseded his failures, the old ruler would trade them all in just for the power to rewrite history.

Oh… he felt so powerlessly feeble that day he watched his soldiers fall like lambs to the slaughter house from the walking Bijuu in human skin.

Such unfathomable power, Hiruzen couldn't comprehend it. It was as if he was taking on a fully mobile human sized Kyuubi, it was outrageous. The sense of dread everyone including himself felt escalated when the being of insurmountable power not only admitted he could sense their weapon of mass destruction inside their Jinchuuriki, but he could crush it without remorse!

It didn't help matters much that Naruko had taken a shine to him. The only reason he didn't feel more panic than he probably should've by seeing Naruko's attachment to Yusuke manifest itself so quickly was because Yusuke didn't kill any of his soldiers, only maimed them heavily.

Even still, Naruko's devotion to Yusuke was an extreme worry, in the sense if the walking Bijuu grew bored and decided to up and leave Konoha one day, she could potentially forsake her loyalty to his village to join the only guy her age to ever show her love and make her feel like a young woman who existed.

The possibility of Naruko siding with Yusuke was strong as unfortunate as it were. The villagers and shinobi had done little to make their weapon feel welcomed among their ranks, or hell, even among their society.

They ignored her because of some misplaced hatred and now, it looked like that the villagers' contempt for Naruko could come back to bite them in the rear, and they would be powerless to do anything about it.

Sending troops after the potential "fugitives" would only lose him their services.

Yusuke was far too powerful and the depth of his personality (or his back story for that matter) was still very much shrouded in mystery

Hiruzen Sarutobi – The professor – was known for many things, but a hobby he was not.

Painting sculptures as a pastime of the people and village he held so close to his heart soothed his stress.

"Just a few more touches."

It was what he was doing now after all.

Oh, and smoking his favourite pipe.

…That helped too.

Of course what didn't lull his stress any was his door being violently slammed open with the embodiment of his tension greeting him in a loud voice to feign any semblance of warmth.

"What's crackalackin' gramps?"

It certainly didn't help when the sudden disruption had instinctively caused him to slip during his delicate strokes to his sculpture, ruining it indefinitely.

Eyeing his ruined painting sadly, Hiruzen released a submissive sigh from his lips, not for the first time cursing his lack of strength to do anything to avoid the young man from walking all over him.

Spinning his chair around to greet Yusuke, he hid his sadness expertly behind an stoic masquerade, "What may I ask is it you require of me today, Yusuke-sama?" He asked with the utmost respect in his raspy tone, even if he didn't necessarily respect the young man in front of him as much as he feared him.

Hiruzen was an old man showed clearly by Yusuke's nickname for him and the three liver-spots sat on the left side of his head. Most of his hair had naturally receded and turned grey, leaving him with only a cap of hair that went round his head. His skin was tanned, a signature trait of the Sarutobi clan when they reached a certain age.

He was sure Konohamaru would develop this too.

A small grey goatee hung from his chin.

His dark eyes were drained of life with tired, forced acceptance.

He wore white and red robes signifying his position of the leader of the city-sized village, though nowadays he felt more like a lackey with Yusuke's powerful presence looming over the village.

He did have a triangle shaped hat that completed his Hokage garments, but since he was painting he took it off and left it on his desk.

Earning himself a roll of the wrist from Yusuke in the so-and-so motion, he took that as his sign to continue, "I trust Naruko-chan is doing well, yes?"

"Good," Yusuke said flippantly, untucking an extra seat opposite of Hiruzen's desk to place his rear on it. Once he did this, Hiruzen automatically withdrawn his hat from the surface of the desk, giving room for Yusuke to blithely prop his legs up in a crossed style on the surface, intertwining his hands with an air of self-importance hanging over him, "You know, as good as she's ever been with someone giving her the recognition she craved. Yeah, what a mystery."

His sarcastic remark evoked a wince from Hiruzen, "Yes, well I concede petty hatred can often blind one from the truth in front of their faces."

"For thirteen years?"

"I never said hatred had a lasting duration."

"That's a load of shit and you know it," The white and red robed clad leader cringed from Yusuke's blunt reply, "The pain of loss is a bitch to deal with, yeah, I get that. But even still, time heals all wounds. Way I see it those sappy folks down there not having enough of a brain up in their empty heads to fail to rationalize a little girl isn't a gigantic fuck ton Bijuu is static simplicity at its finest."

Fixing his elbows on the small space he had left on his desk to intertwine his hands together, Hiruzen's stoic masquerade returned in full, "I'm afraid recuperation of mental scars isn't as easy as you make it out to be young man."

Yusuke flipped his hands over his shoulder in dismissal, "And what about that student of yours? The one you said was gonna come back to the village to help Naru control her tenant? He couldn't look after her 'cause… why now?"

"Jiraiya-kun's spy network is a quintessential method to allow Konohagakure to get a leg up advantage on rival villages and criminal outlaws," Hiruzen explained.

"And it's 'cause of that neglect Naru suffered is why my baby girl clung to me as if I was her last lifeline the instance I swaggered into her life," The green-clad young man retorted smoothly, prompting Hiruzen to wince before he shook his head, "If it's not one thing with you, it's the other, huh gramps?"

Sighing in acquiescence, Hiruzen reached into his drawer, pulling out his pipe he stuck into his lips and lit with a small, nigh harmless fire jutsu. Drawing in an inhale of precious tobacco, he exhaled, "Indeed."

Rolling his eyes, Yusuke turned his attention to the corners of the ceiling as if seeing invisible forces only he could see, "Hey, you lot have heard enough, now piss off. This office is now secluded till further notice. Comprende?"

In four blurs of speed, four of the cloaked individuals identified as anbu black ops materialized at his sides in respectful, kneeled down positions, "Understood, Yusuke-sama."

They then disappeared out of the office just as fast and indistinct as they came in clouds of smoke with leaves surrounding them.

"I can take it you wish to share sensitive information with I, Yusuke-sama," Hiruzen ventured to guess with a raised eyebrow.

Yusuke sighed, "Nah. Just don't like being watched, it pisses me off," Hiruzen nodded, making a mental note to inform his anbu to leave immediately next time Yusuke enters his office, "Anyway, got any available missions?"

"So soon?" Hiruzen asked, not being able to hide his incredulity, "Do you believe the child is ready for such a step this early in her development?"

"Ehh. Not really," Yusuke admitted, not beating around the bush, "Though she ain't the one who's gonna be putting in most of the work," He jerked a thumb at himself, "I am. She'll probably be a passenger, which is the whole point of the mission."

"It is?"

"Following me on the right tracks like this shows you're not as senile as you look gramps," Yusuke quipped, sneering at Hiruzen's frown, "Not only do I want my baby girl to see me in action up close and personal so she can take something outta it, but I want her to see a glimpse of the world herself, even if it's only a small portion."

Hiruzen nodded in an understanding fashion. Taking into consideration that shinobi of any village were more or less imprisoned until given the "okay" from their leaders to venture out of the village for whatever reason, he could see why Yusuke would want Naruko to see the world.

He just prayed they would return.

"When would you like to undergo a chosen mission?" Hiruzen asked.

Yusuke shaped his index and middle fingers to form a peace sign, "Two weeks," He lowered his hand again, "Give me some time to improve her abysmal chakra control and unsatisfactory fighting style. Seriously, what were the instructors teaching her, or any of the damned brats for that matter, in the academy? Cause I'm beginning to assume they mostly babysat 'em and taught 'em the bare essentials needed to graduate."

"I can assure you the academy instructors are among some of the-."

"Lamest individuals around," Yusuke said assertively, finishing for Hiruzen with a tone that left no room for argument, "Seriously. Shit around there needs changing, pronto. The standards are just not up to par, and Naru, your Jinchuuriki, is sole proof of this. She sucks. Now,_ that,_ I can assure you."

Letting out quite possibly one hundredth wince that day past his lips from having his own words thrown in his face, Hiruzen acquiesced, "Yes, perhaps I can look into the teaching methods the academy instructors use."

"You do that," The slick-back haired young man said, spoken more as a threat than a suggestion, "Doubt Naru's old man's aspiration was for her to become the worst ninja on the block when the asshole crammed the fox up in his daughter."

Hiruzen's eyes widened at the implications of Yusuke's statement, "How did you find out the Fourth Hokage was Naruko-chan's father?"

Yusuke smirked, "You just told me. Obviously," Ignoring Hiruzen's sigh, he pointed over to the wall where four photo frames of the previous and current Hokages were hung. In particular, a blond-haired individual who could be identified as an older, male version of Naruko, "But seriously, how can I not find out when you're essentially parading the evidence up on the wall for anyone who steps foot into your office to view."

Hiruzen scowled slightly, "I should have removed those whilst I had the chance."

"No sense crying over spilled milk now," Yusuke shrugged.

"Indeed," Hiruzen sighed, drawing in another whiff of his pipe, "Have you informed Naruko-chan of her lineage?"

"Not yet." Here, a frown graced Yusuke's features, complete with the pseudo ruler and proclaimed-Bijuu cupping his chin, "Just dunno what to tell her. After all, 'Hey, babe; you know your idol? Well he's actually your old man and the very cause of your misery. Have fun with that,' sounds stupid, not to mention inconsiderate."

"Indeed. That is why I would have been conflicted regarding the right time to reveal Naruko-chan's lineage to her if Jiraiya-kun hadn't of volunteered to do so once he returns to the village from his extended freelance period," Hiruzen said, deciding to add on as if sensing Yusuke's thoughts from his deadpanned expression, "I concur it would have been far more simple to accomplish such an endeavour if he had taken parenteral responsibility of Naruko-chan like any loving godfather would have done, but alas his spy network is vital to Konohagakure's success."

"So you keep on reiterating to justify the no-show," Yusuke said, slapping his hand against his face at the reveal of the Jiraiya-guy's familial connection to Naruko, "But I will tell ya now, gramps. You better start _praying _the boss only beats this guy black-and-blue the day he turns up, otherwise there'll be no sealing master to help Naru collect her overdue rent payment."

"Are you insinuating that the Yusuke-sama I am having this conversation with is a clone?" Like always, he could never detect any signs of falsehood from Yusuke's clones. That was probably because he didn't have chakra, at least not any he could trace.

"Redundant. You'll see for yourself when I haul off in like two seconds from now. Just have a mission ready by two weeks or else there'll be trouble. Later."

He dispersed in a myriad of blue fireflies.

"Intriguing," Hiruzen said, reaching underneath his desk to pull out a crystal ball. Propping his pipe down momentarily, Hiruzen hovered his hands around his glass ball as if he was a fortune teller, bringing up the image of Yusuke who was shadow boxing with thin air, "I must remember to request specific verification of Yusuke-sama's clone mastery. It appears it's even more discreet than the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It could be an invaluable proficiency if he is willing to share."

"_Yu-chan! Why do I have to do this_?"

Hearing Naruko's loud whine in the location Yusuke was in prompted Hiruzen to shift the scenery from Yusuke to the source of the commotion, finding the distressed girl balancing upside down on a nail using a chakra-induced index finger.

"Such a bizarre training method," Hiruzen chuckled, "I can only hope the results pay out handsomely for her in the end."

XxX

(Training Ground – Moments Before)

XxX

"Yeah." Yusuke said, dropping his stance with an unusual serious scowl of intent marring his features, "The no-show godfather of Naru-baby, apparently, is getting his ass gift-wrapped to him on a silver platter," The memories he received from his clone was frustrating him to hell.

Granted, his clones weren't like Naruko's because he didn't have chakra. They were more akin to the ones used in the Dragon ball manga he read, but still they worked just as proficiently as hers, and even better, mainly because reiki was far stronger than chakra, in a destructive sense. Chakra was just more versatile.

He still had to discipline Hiruzen with a severe beating for holding out on the memory relay trick. He had to figure that out himself, which he did the day he mastered his own innovated clone technique based vaguely on the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu he saw Naruko use.

Such a bonus was already working wonders for Naruko, who had another group of clones working on her form par Yusuke's orders. She did after all have a huge ocean-sized chakra pool. Memory relay may have been dangerous for anyone else with normal sized reserves, but for Naruko it was a manageable convenience.

"Asshole." He might just have to trounce Hiruzen again for keeping the godfather information from him.

"Yu-chan! Why do I have to do this?!"

He sighed hearing his girlfriend's whine thunder across their private training ground, turning around to find her straining to stay on a similar nail he had once struggled to stay balanced upon.

In truth, he empathized with her, something of which filled him with some semblance of content. Not only could he relate to a training partner's struggles but the partnership was made sweeter when she was his girlfriend. The prospect of them getting in any petty squabbles was diminished greatly thanks to their personalities being compatible.

Incompatibility was the main reason he assumed was why he didn't connect with Keiko as well as he did with Naruko, even if he had only knew her for a period of six months. The interactions between him and Naruko never failed to bring out the roguery in him, whilst his interactions with Keiko were mostly annoying heated arguments because she didn't agree with his passion; fighting.

Additionally, because she wasn't a fighter, but willingly stayed with Yusuke even as he ventured down a path definitely not suited for her, he always worried for her safety, knowing she could be used by his enemies as a tool for him to lower his guard, get him to make a mistake and it stressed him to no end.

At least with Naruko, who had no qualms about Yusuke fighting being a shinobi herself and all, could somewhat stand on her own two legs. She could embrace Yusuke's world and almost all it entailed. Granted, he would still worry about her against uber powerful S-classed warriors like the Demon kings presiding over the Demon World, but that worry would diminish the stronger she became.

That wouldn't happen with Keiko, Miss Normal.

He did feel some lingering guilt over his failure of his relationship with Keiko, being that he never properly ended it, only told her he would return to her after three years to marry her.

*Sigh.*

He only wished there was some form of communication here he could link to his original home dimension to tell Keiko he no longer wished to be with her, to at least give her a semblance of closure if nothing else.

"Yu-chan!"

Back in reality, Yusuke buried the feelings of negativity in the furthest reaches of his subconscious, concluding pondering on them would do him no good as he sauntered over to his girl, "Yeah?" He asked as if he hadn't of left her hanging for a few moments, earning himself a miffed glare from her.

"I don't wanna do this!" She whined, almost falling off of the nail.

"Tough." Yusuke said with a no-nonsense stance, "Gotta do what ya gotta do if you wish to someday be able to control that massive chakra ocean of yours, gal."

"Then why can't I get my clones to do it!" The blond cried, flailing her free arm around to regain her balance, "This is hard and boring!"

"Cause they're you," He said as if it explained everything, "They won't have the patience for this sorta thing."

"What makes ya assume I will?" Eventually, as she asked this in an incredulous manner, her control was disrupted enough to send her falling off of the tiny tool, flopping to the ground on her stomach, "See. I barely have enough patience to stay on that thing for ten seconds as it is let alone an hour," She lifted herself up into a sitting position, folding her legs in a boyish fashion.

Yusuke sighed, squatting down to the girl's level, "No one ever said training was fun."

"Well it oughta be," Naruko retorted in a stubborn fashion, crossing her arms over her chest, "And it would be too if ya stopped dicking around and got straight to the juicy bits, namely teaching me a technique from your arsenal." She recoiled from a solid blow delivered to her head, causing her to fling her arms over her crown with tears in her eyes, "Hey! Whatcha do that for?!"

"Idiot." Yusuke said with a surly expression masking his face, holding up the utilized fist, "Power is useless without the necessary control to use it accurately. You yourself, milady, are a fine example. Despite the shit ton of energy at your disposal, you're still scrub level. Why? 'Cause you have no control. Even if I were to teach ya my spirit gun, you would probably have about three or two bursts when you should have about five if not more just by cramming more juice into one than you would need to."

"But that's good, right?" Naruko questioned, grabbing onto her crossed feet in an adorable fashion, a look of curiosity adorning her whiskered face, "It means I'll have a better chance of defeating my opponents, right?"

"If by 'defeat' you mean utterly roast their asses out of existence, then yes, you'll defeat 'em splendidly," Yusuke countered dryly, drawing a cringe from Naruko, "Let's not even take into account the surrounding bystanders that could potentially get caught up in the crossfire."

"Didn't think of that," Naruko admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Wouldn't want that to happen, though I'm curious, what bystander would ever be dumb enough to stick around to watch a fight between two high-classed contenders unless they aren't high-classed contenders themselves?"

"Could be ones you were assigned to protect for a mission."

"Point taken," Naruko conceded, setting herself on all fours to balance on the nail once again with an aura of despair, "I'll hop back on the horse then."

For as much 'tough love' as he tried to show Naruko, he couldn't deny the wave of sympathy he felt for the monumental uphill task she faced before her, especially since she had the impatience he once had a year ago. To a lesser extent, he was still impatient, especially to tripe like self-righteous feminine fury, but nowadays he wasn't that bad, certainly not as impatient as Naruko was now.

"Tell ya what," Yusuke said mercifully, laying a pat on Naruko's back which draw a blank look from her, "You do this without complaint for the next thirty minutes, and we'll get some lunch once today's training session is concluded. My treat." Naruko's eyes lit up with hope.

"Really? I don't have to do the whole hour?"

Yusuke grinned toothily, "Really. I'm abridging the duration, so consider yourself lucky."

"Yay!" She threw her arms around Yusuke's neck and pressed her smaller body up against his huger one, happily rubbing her cheek against his, "Thank you! You really know how to make a girl feel lucky, don't cha?"

A glint appeared in the left socket of Yusuke, 'Can't wait to see her reaction after she finds out what I've got in store for her make-up session,' He internally chuckled with an evil undertone, "Like we haven't already had the "Yusuke's numero uno discussion" before. Now, chop-chop. That hamster wheel isn't going to roll itself."

"Okay!" Naruko said merrily, planting a quick peck on Yusuke's cheek, "Just watch me. Naruko Uzumaki's gonna own the zone for sure," Confidently said, Naruko swaggeringly flipped up into the air, turning over to land on the nail using her chakra-induced index finger, "Whoa," She steadied herself, "Yep, it's all under control."

"So it seems," Yusuke said sarcastically, raising to his full height and looking off in a random direction, "I'll go check on those clones, then." Leaving the original to her struggles, Yusuke ventured off to another section of the forest to see five pairs of ten clones where he originally left them, connecting soft but precise blows from roundhouse punches, to kicks, to uppercuts, and straight jabs on the training pads of their partner.

The idea of the training was for the clones to learn to properly throw a punch and a kick of all kinds, dispel, and send the knowledge right back to Naruko. Basic stuff one would be taught in kindergarten, but as the academy instructors sucked at teaching their students _any _real fighting techniques, Naruko couldn't fight.

Her form was sloppy with many gaps, leaving plenty of opportunities for potential opponents to break her non-existent guard and floor her with the slightest of ease. Not to mention her wild blows made it ridiculously easy for anyone worth their salt to counter them.

Sasuke and Hinata, who had clans (or at least Sasuke once did) to teach them real martial arts, could destroy Naruko without effort.

Sad, but truth.

If a student didn't come from a respected clan, odds were they were going to come out fighting like scrubs even him at his weakest could've soloed.

"Hey, ladies," Yusuke greeted, drawing the attention of the clones, "How's it flying over here?"

A collective bored chant of "Fine Yu-chan" met his ears, prompting him to nod.

"Good, good. Keep it up now, y'hear? And Naru-baby might earn herself a take-out."

"Alright!" They cheered simultaneously, earning themselves a smile from Yusuke.

His baby girl could be so easy to motivate.

XxX

(Later That day)

XxX

"I hate you!"

Naruko sulked from her position perched tiredly on Yusuke's back.

If she knew what Yusuke planned for her to make up for the hour and a half missed period of chakra concentration training she would've soldiered through the other half, but _no_!

Yusuke just had to be a sadistic jerk, waiting until their session in the training ground was concluded for the day to lead her to the Hokage monument. Then he told her she had to climb up there with a cinder block tied around her waist.

What a horrible thing to spring on her so suddenly and without warning.

She couldn't even get half way to the top let alone anywhere near close to the top before she fell and had to be caught by Yusuke who climbed to the peak with a massive forty ton boulder weighing him down.

That happened multiple of times and all she had to show for her failed endeavour were scraped knees.

"Look at it this way, this'll act as your warning next time you consider taking a short out," Yusuke said, adding salt to the wound as he held onto Naruko's ankles to keep her balanced on his back.

Naruko glared at Yusuke's head, too tired to even attempt strangling him if she ever could, "Dummy," She settled for regurgitating the same insult in rapid succession, "Dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy."

"Nice maturity, baby," Yusuke remarked sarcastically.

"Big. Stupid. Dummy," Naruko pouted, emphasizing every word as though they were their own sentence.

Yusuke sighed in a sardonic manner, withdrawing his box of cigarettes from his pocket to pull one out of the box. Propping the cancer-stick in between his lips, Yusuke stuck a finger to the tip of the cigarette, lighting it with an ignition of his finger as if he was firing off a small spirit gun.

'She'll cool off once I get her in the shower,' Yusuke mused, placing his cigarette box back in his pocket the same time he exhaled a cloud of smoke from his lips.

Sensing a familiar reiki-signature just around an interaction of roads up ahead, he wasn't surprised to find the lone solitary loyal Uchiha of Konoha walking with haste when he came to this point.

Seeing as Sasuke currently had his ears plugged up with headphones, he patted him on the shoulder, greeting him loudly, "Yo! What's cracking?"

Sasuke jumped, only feeling his jittery nerves calm down when he turned around to find probably his only friend in all of Konoha standing beside him with a teasing smile on his face and his girlfriend on his back, "Oh, it's you," He said in calm recognition, removing a headphone from his ear, "Hey."

"That it? Was expecting more of an exaggeration than that from your initial reaction," Yusuke joked, prompting Naruko to stare at the two blankly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, giving Yusuke a shrug of mock ignorance, "Hey, there."

Yusuke shook his head with his grin still latched onto his countenance, deciding to stop beating on a dead horse to move onto another subject, "What're you jamming to?"

"Uh." Hesitating, Sasuke looked away from Yusuke, increasing the blank look in Naruko's eyes, "I-It's, uhm, nothing; just a Coldplay track."

"Which one?"

"Clocks, I assume," Sasuke said, then suspiciously changed the subject before Yusuke could ask to hear it for verification, "I presume you two didn't have to take an extra test to be fully integrated with the system huh?"

"Oh, yeah! We just got right to training!" Naruko chimed in cheerfully, "Why? Did your squad have to take another test before you could become ninjas, Sasuke?"

"Yeah," Sasuke scowled, "Apparently, according to our sensei, only an average rate of sixty-six percent become genin each year."

"Wow, bummer," Naruko said, feeling sympathy for the challenge Sasuke and his team faced, "That sucks."

"You don't say," Sasuke said with sarcasm oozing from his gruff tone, "Try having to sit in a training field for hours on end while your dick of a sensei dicks around doing god knows what in that time span."

"Ouch." Naruko replied, mimicking Yusuke's awkward cringe, "To leave anyone hanging for hours at a time is overly cruel of anyone. What an asshole."

"Right. It also doesn't ease my frustration any knowing he specifically requested we starve ourselves this morning for the sole purpose of tying anyone of us to a stump to force us to watch him eat his own lunch in front of us if we failed his vague test," The last Uchiha ranted in an acerbic tone.

"Double ouch."

"And that's just understating it," Yusuke declared in an relatively unconcerned manner, drawing in another drag of his cancer-stick, "What about your teammates? What are their thoughts on the asshole? Go ahead and tell us who they are while you're at it. May as well."

"Oh, yeah!" Naruko smiled, "Who did you get teamed up with?"

"Uh." Turning his blushing face away from the two lovebirds, Sasuke said, "Don't laugh." Unfortunately, the unintentional insinuation he gave them was picked up by Yusuke who couldn't help but laugh, "I asked you not to laugh. I specifically requested that you hold back the laughter, you bastard."

"And I'm not. Just call it a snicker," The slick-back haired man quipped, folding an arm around Sasuke's shoulder, who glared at him in annoyance, "How cute. Sasuke's teamed up with his crush. Heh, guess when you pray desperately enough the big guy upstairs actually obliges."

"Sasuke has a crush?" Naruko questioned, peering down at Sasuke's annoyed visage blankly, "Who's that?"

"You of all people should know who, baby," Yusuke assured.

"Don't you dare!" Sasuke demanded.

He did not need someone else teasing him in regards to his supposed crush.

One was headache enough.

"You know, giving me commands only makes me want to instinctively disobey 'em. Kinda got a rebellious streak like that."

"I won't forgive you!"

"What a tragedy."

Naruko watched the back and forth banter between Yusuke and Sasuke blankly, propping an elbow on top of Yusuke's head to support her chin, "C'mon guys, is one of ya gonna tell me or not? Don't leave a girl hanging," She insisted, finding Sasuke's face becoming increasingly more desperate.

Fortunately, fate decided to throw her bone in the form of a familiar voice ringing throughout the air, "Oh, Sasuke-kun."

Briefly widening her eyes, a smile crept across Naruko's face from the head of lavender that came into view, "Hinata-chan!"

Quickly coming into range of the group, Hinata paused in her endeavour to give Naruko a brief bow before turning to address Sasuke in her usual melodic voice, "You took off so hastily I never got the opportunity to ask you if you wished to have dinner with Chouji-kun and myself at a nearby restaurant in town."

"I know," Sasuke admitted, scratching his cheek with his index finger, "I, uhm.-"

"Was just really hungry," Yusuke interrupted, stepping in for Sasuke and earning himself Hinata's pale-eyed, inquisitive attention, "Sasuke told us all about the obligatory no-eating condition issued to himself and his team by his sensei, which I'm guessing you're a part of," When Sasuke stared doubtfully at him, he winked discreetly as if to say, 'Trust me.'

"Yes, that's canonical, Yusuke-san," Hinata said with a look of recognition, "Kakashi-sensei was most stern, which was unfortunately portrayed well with his,-" She smiled sheepishly, "-Rather unfriendly conditions you previously noted."

Yusuke nodded, identifying Kakashi as the one-eyed masked shinobi who also took no effort to defeat in his spanking of Konoha. While the elite shinobi had a bag of tricks, he lacked the adequate strength and speed to ever go toe to toe with him without succumbing to his power in a matter of a few seconds.

"My apologies, Naruko-chan," Hinata began to explain, giving Naruko another bow, "But as I had addressed Sasuke-kun first, I wanted to be sure to relay the information I planned on giving him beforehand in case I forgot by a stroke of misfortune. I hope you don't take that the wrong way."

"No sweat. It's cool," Naruko grinned, folding her arms behind her head.

"Thank you," Hinata smiled, raising up back up with her hands still neatly folded below her waist.

"No probs. So where's Chouji?" Naruko asked.

"Here I am." Naruko whirled her head over her shoulder to find the robust individual sauntering up to them with a packet of crisp in his grip.

"Hi ya, Chouji," Naruko said in greeting.

"Hey," He returned with his usual serious scowl.

"Didn't know you would be with Hinata-chan and Sasuke," Naruko said.

"Me either," Here, a look of puzzlement graced Chouji's features, "I could've sworn I would've been with Shika and Ino, mostly because our folks were a team back in their day, and you know what they say.-"

"What isn't broken don't fix it." Yusuke said, completing Chouji's quote for him.

"Exactly," Chouji nodded, "But since Asuma-sensei requested the selection of Sora on his squad personally, I got grouped with Sasuke and Hinata, not that I mind. We're Team Seven."

"Of course! Hinata-chan and Sasuke are great!" Naruko proclaimed enthusiastically, prompting the robust novice to smile himself.

"Couldn't agree more," Chouji remarked.

"Thanks," Sasuke said, glancing up toward the sky distantly.

"Thank you, Chouji-kun. I believe if we continue to harbour the amount of indomitable faith we shown each other today to pass Kakashi-sensei's test then we'll make a sufficient team." Hinata said in a humble demeanour.

"Yeah," Sasuke drawled with a throaty tone and a longing gaze lingered on Hinata's beautiful moon eyes, something Yusuke's perceptive eyes didn't miss.

"So are we gonna stand around chit-chatting all day or are we gonna grab some grub?" Yusuke asked.

"Ah! That reminds me, we were just heading toward fifty four BBQ to grab a bite of BBQ, obviously," Chouji drooled, "Wanna come?"

"Sure. Sounds good," Naruko said, though her smile slipped from her face to make way for a look of sympathetic concern, "Yu-chan doesn't really like ramen anyway."

"It's not that I don't like it," Yusuke rebutted, hiding the sadness that settled itself in his heart behind an stoic masquerade.

"Then why?" Feeling Naruko squirming her knees free from his grip, he carefully released them to allow her feet to touch the ground, jamming his hands into his pockets. With the tender touch of his girlfriend caressing his cheeks, Yusuke allowed her to gently guide his head downward to look into her pleading eyes, "Why won't you ever have a bowl of ramen when we visit Ichiraku? You won't even try a sample, even when I offer to feed ya romantically, so why?"

"Naru-baby," Yusuke whispered, gazing down into the gaze of Naruko with remorseful eyes, softly laying his hand against hers, sending a shiver up her spine from the contact, "The reason's inessential."

"Then why won't you tell me?" But Naruko pressed on in a dogged fashion, earning herself looks of concern from team seven, "You… you say the answer's inessential yet still refuse to tell me why you won't eat ramen," She lowered her head in frustration, "Sorta contradicts your whole excuse pal."

"Don't see how, personally. Inconsequential shit is inconsequential, thus has no justified reason to be broadcasted. At all," It wasn't inconsequential at all. After all, how could he ever step foot into another ramen restaurant without thinking of _her_? Because her parents owned a ramen shop, it became absurdly difficult for him to walk into one without immediately being reminded of her, and most specifically, how it cruelly left her hanging.

It haunted him.

"So let's leave the hassle-crap in the furthest depth of our dust," Yusuke started in a cool manner, softly removing Naruko's hands from his cheeks to saunter past her, "Let's move on out. Our stomachs won't fill themselves now."

"But Yu-chan-!" Naruko protested, twirling around to try and grab Yusuke's arm, only to bite back a gasp when her significant other dematerialized in a rapid burst of speed, evoking gasps from Team seven.

"Chill. This is nothin'." Luckily, they were drawn to Yusuke's dispassionate voice close by, finding the aforementioned young man a few feet ahead of them with his back turned, "C'mon. I'm starved here. Let's hit the road folks."

"Yu-chan," Naruko murmured sorrowfully, while Chouji and Sasuke began to follow Yusuke's lead. Hinata, on the other hand, stayed to wait for Naruko, whom grasped her hands, "You're a terrible liar, you do know that right?" When Yusuke briefly ceased his movements, she almost hoped he would come clean.

"Hello, pot. My name's kettle. You're black."

…Almost.

* * *

**Sasuke**

**Ninjutsu: 2:5**

**Taijutsu: 2:5**

**Genjutsu: 1:5**

**Intelligence: 2:5**

**Strength: 2**

**Speed: 3**

**Stamina: 2 **

**Hand seals: 3**

**Total: 19**

* * *

**Hinata**

**Ninjutsu: 2**

**Taijutsu: 3**

**Genjutsu: 1**

**Intelligence: 3:5**

**Strength: 1:5**

**Speed: 2**

**Stamina: 1:5 **

**Hand seals: 2:5**

**Total: 16**

* * *

**Chouji**

**Ninjutsu: 3:5**

**Taijutsu: 3**

**Genjutsu: 0**

**Intelligence: 1:5 **

**Strength: 3**

**Speed: 1:5**

**Stamina: 2**

**Hand seals: 1:5 **

**Total: 16**

* * *

**Contrary to popular belief, there isn't a single well-developed character in Naruto, which explains the understandable hate a myriad of its characters, most notably Sasuke and Sakura, get in fanfiction.**

**I dunno why the Fairy-boy even bothers bringing about the insurmountable controversy he has to force feed his opinions to people. What's so appealing about Kishimoto's shit wreck that he would sully his own credibility to prove his precious Naruto's one of the strongest when that's far from the case.**

**No one else gives a rat's rear end about Naruto, which explains the abundance of Naruto fics that are so willing to divorce him from his original character, understandably so. He's an unrealistic sack of crap. With his excessive leniency, gender identify issues, confused sexuality, disgustingly excessive heroism, immense stupidity, submissiveness to every girl he talks to, resulting in him becoming Sakura's door mat, and ludicrous idealism, he's totally unidentifiable and I can see why authors don't like his character and enjoy rewriting it.****.**

**I dunno where that came from peeps, just Fairy-boy's adulation of Naruto quite frankly astounds me considering how atrocious the series is, with a cast full of shafted characters. Naruto could've been good, but Kishimoto abandoned a perfectly good formula for what? Bijuu, jinchuuriki, Senju DNA and the disgusting Sasuke and Naruto boy love. Ugh.**

**Wasted potential.**

**Before I forget I've added a couple of omitted attributes to Naruko's stats, bringing her total up a bit, but not much. She was the WORST student in her class for a reason. Because she had no one to help her and the instructors sucked.**


	3. One Step at a Time

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Naruto**

* * *

Naruko tussled, rolling from one side of the bed to the other with frustrated moans coming from her lips.

When she finally decided the endeavour she was trying to complete was futile, she reached over toward the cabinet on Yusuke's side of the bed, pulling on a string. Immediately, a small light illuminated a section of the secluded room as Naruko rolled into centre of the bed, arms crossed over her stomach and a frown on her face.

"Just not the same without Yu-chan beside me," She turned to sadly eye the empty space usually preoccupied by her significant other.

For days on end now she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep, for this sole reason; Yusuke wasn't sleeping with her, at all. For Naruko, who had grown so accustomed and fond of doing everything with Yusuke over these many months, the recent days just gone by with little Yusuke by her side left a void in her heart.

He wouldn't even shower with her.

He did the essentials for her, such as making sure she got in a good day's work on the training ground and was washed and dressed adequately, like he always did.

It was almost like they had a strictly professional teacher-student relationship instead of the romantic girlfriend-boyfriend relationship that saved Naruko from the darkness of loneliness to begin with.

…And it devastated her.

"I want Yu-chan!" Naruko exclaimed, tears seeping uncontrollably out of her eyes, cascading down her cheeks.

Throwing the blanket to the side, Naruko was up off of her shared bed and out of her shared room in less than two seconds, ghosting in desperation through the hallway and straight into the living room, spotting the black top of hair of Yusuke sticking out from the top of their beige coloured pouch.

"S'up?" Outwardly, Yusuke was calmly insouciant, though inwardly, he was concerned hearing his lady sniffle through her nostrils, 'Damn, gal. You really know how to send a guy tumbling down guilt lane, don't you?'

"Yu-chan," How could he ignore that or even pretend to, that sad whimper for attention? After all, it was the first thing he heard from the girl the day he met her, sitting on a swing all on her lonesome.

"Aw, baby," Yusuke said, unfolding his previously crossed legs to perch one on the floor, leaving the other propped up on the sofa bent at the knee to rest his elbow on as he pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand, "You're hitting me in more places than one here."

Taking that as a sign of encouragement to press on, Naruko took a dawdled, shy step forward, arms held below her waist in a very Hinata-like gesture, "I can't sleep," She explained with some emphasis on the word 'sleep,' stepping closer and closer to Yusuke.

"And why is that, little lady?" Yusuke asked, propping his raised up knee sideways across his anchored leg, cupping his cheek with his index finger and thumb as he stared at nothing in particular to feign ignorance, "Did I not train ya hard enough?"

He did raise an eyebrow slightly when he felt Naruko drop beside him in an uncharacteristic gentle fashion before the aforementioned girl cut straight to the chase, "Come back to bed, Yu-chan."

"Naru-baby," When he turned just to look into the girl's eyes, he almost widened his eyes, just for the simple fact he did not expect to find her seated with her knees buckled close together and her hands positioned on her lap.

Naruko was the kind of girl to either messily throw herself on a sofa in her typical slap-happy demeanour, or seat herself in a boyish leg-crossed position, but as of right now, she looked like a right proper lady.

It was both hilarious and adorable because it wasn't how he was used to seeing Naruko act, like a delicate wallflower. He would expect that kind of thing from Hinata, but not Naruko.

It made him crack a wry smile while he cupped Naruko's cheek, wiping away a tear that sent a tingle through her, "Looking like a real lady here Naru," Yusuke said jestingly, causing a blush to crept across Naruko's cheeks, "Must be the emo, eh. Tends to bring out the femininity in ya, am I right?"

"Idiot," Naruko whispered, lowering her head and placing her hand against Yusuke's, a smile tugging at her lips, "You bring out the femininity in me, not any emo. You saved me from loneliness, made me feel loved, made me feel like a lady, and most of all, made me feel like I mattered, that I existed and wasn't nobody."

"Yeah," Yusuke said with a low echoing tone that accentuated the lethal intent within his shadowed eyes, stemmed from the resentment he felt toward three individuals, Naruko's father, godfather, and Hiruzen, 'Her old man's an ass for being the instigator of this whole bullshittery, her wannabe godfather an ass for leaving her to defend for herself, and gramps is a dumbass for broadcasting her status to the entire population of the village.'

Why did civilians, or even lower-classed shinobi, need to know about Naruko's status? If he was expecting Naruko to be seen as some kind of hero among the victims of the weapon of mass destruction she was holding back then he was stupidly idealistic.

A pragmatic individual like Yusuke had no respect for such blinded idealism, especially when Naruko's neglect could've been avoided had Hiruzen used common sense and kept the Kyuubi's imprisonment to himself.

"Come back to bed, Yu-chan," The blond ponytailed girl pleaded, causing the baleful lour to dissipate from Yusuke's visage, "Please. You don't even have to tell me about your distaste of ramen, just please come back to bed!" She threw herself forward, landing her head into Yusuke's lap.

"Princess," Yusuke whispered with a look of sympathy, laying his hand gently atop Naruko's crown. His heart ached when Naruko lifted her head from his lap to unintentionally exhibit her tear-streaked cheeks.

"Even if disliking ramen isn't the reason you avoid it, you don't have to tell me. I don't care! I… I…" She hiccupped, "Just want to know you're there beside me when I shut my eyes, and when I open 'em, so please! Come back to bed."

Yusuke half grinned, lulling the strained desperation on Naruko's features, "How can I say no, eh?"

Nodding in relief, Naruko stood, offering her hand to Yusuke whom accepted it without hesitation, rising up to his feet. After making sure the light in the living room was switched off, the two made their way to their shared room, hand in hand, only disconnecting once they set foot in there so Yusuke could remove his clothes save his underwear.

In that duration, Naruko crawled onto their bed, watching him undressing on her knees as if scared to take her eyes from him even for a second. Every second it took him to remove an article of clothing felt like an excruciating minute to Naruko. She even bit onto her bottom lip out of impatience.

When his trousers fell to his ankles that he stepped out of to turn to her, she exhaled, "Oh Yu-chan," She said, scooting over to free up Yusuke's side of the bed, which she was glad he took up again.

Not even bothering to stifle a yawn from his mouth, Yusuke reached over to grab their blanket, which was a mixture of their favourite colours, green and orange, and threw it over them. Once his head hit his pillow, he felt the weight of Naruko's head land on his own chest and the soft grasp of her arms around his torso, prompting him to tuck an arm behind his head.

"Much better," Naruko smiled dreamily, snuggling her head on his warm peck.

"Sorry to worry ya, babes," Yusuke said, "Just needed some time to think."

"You really scared me though," The blond ponytailed girl murmured, big doe eyes glancing up at Yusuke.

"I know," Yusuke said remorsefully, folding an arm around Naruko's shoulder to invite her into his embrace, getting a bright smile from her, "One mistake I sincerely hope to avoid ever making again."

"I hope so," Naruko said, her eyes going downcast, "I really do, 'cuz I dunno if I can handle another period of scarce Yusuke-chan time like that one. I felt… so distanced from you, as if I was no more than a mere student instead of the princess to your prince. It hurt so much, and.-" Her voice cracked, initiating the waterworks.

"Baby," Yusuke murmured, giving Naruko a comforting squeeze.

"It… really hurt me. I thought, I thought," Naruko fumbled, struggling to find the correct words to describe her personal turmoil, "That you were gonna leave me, that you saw me as nothing but a thing to be ignored."

'Man, I suck,' Yusuke mused, pinching the bridge of his nose, 'Hauling my own ass in the doghouse as penance for keeping my baby girl in the dark in regards to my avoidance of ramen just ended up hurting her more than it did me.'

Honestly, for as much guilt as he felt he also felt both lucky and touched. To have a girl so like him but at the same time different from him in regards to her warmth balancing out his cold indifference willing to overlook his unshared secrets just so she could sleep with him was the equivalent of striking it rich.

How could he ever hurt her so?

"Never," He started with a blunt, hard-edge to his voice, any and all traces of jest not evident in his intent eyes, "-Again. I ain't gonna leave ya hanging again."

Naruko stared, her hopeful eyes accentuated by the glittery tears, "You promise?"

Yusuke grinned, "Bank on it."

"Good," Lifting up her upper body, Naruko positioned herself over her significant other, dunking herself down to capture his lips against her own, seeping a moan through her mouth and into his, meeting his tongue in the centre of their mouths to playfully wrestle with it. A tickling sensation crept up her spine when Yusuke planted his hands on her rear, squeezing a decent chunk of her small butt cheeks.

She was a rather small girl after all, only coming up within touching reach of Yusuke's shoulder, who wasn't by any means the tallest young man on the block.

"I'm gonna hold ya to that Yusuke Urameshi-chan," Naruko said after pulling away from the kiss, regaining some of her puckish demeanour, "I have plans to be Naruko Urameshi in the future y'know."

"You say that like it's the definitive end-all be-all verdict of us staying together for eternity," Yusuke observed from a pragmatic standpoint.

"'Cuz it is," His significant other returned, showing she really was his opposite in more ways than just gender with her visionary declaration of optimism, snuggling her head playfully on his chest, "Ain't no shame declaring what will inevitably happen."

"You say that now, babes, but you don't know what the future entails," Yusuke said, releasing a sigh of content with Naruko's soft hair brushing against his bare torso, "For all you know, we could end up immediately untying the knot after typing the kno-."

"No we won't!" Yusuke cringed in an awkward fashion from Naruko's bellow, but unfortunately she wasn't done, "We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't! We won't!"

"Alright," Yusuke said in a commanding tone, "Got it. You're fiercely clinging onto the likely possibility of us growing old and grey together. No need to blow my ear drums out. Sheesh."

Naruko giggled in a sassy manner, "Ha! How do ya like 'em apples, Yu-chan? Ya can't derail Naruko Uzumaki-soon-to-be Urameshi's mind off of the right tracks when her mind's made up, so hm-. Mpf!"

Before she could stick her tongue out in a bragging fashion the young man pushed her head down to meet her lips against his, smooching her passionately while simultaneously running one of his hands over her back, sending waves of pleasure through her, which elicited a moan from her.

She combed her hands through Yusuke's usually slick back but now very much messy hair, moving her lips in sync with Yusuke's as another lustful moan echoed from her mouth.

"You talk too much. You know that," Yusuke said coolly, earning himself another giggle from the ponytailed girl on his chest.

"And that's why you love me," She quipped, laying her head back down on Yusuke's chest, "'Cuz I perfectly balance out your cold, hard-headed self with warm, cheerful optimism!"

"That's one way to look at it," Yusuke murmured, tucking an arm behind his head, "Anyway, I think it's about time the big bad wolf and his tigress got in a good catnap before sunrise hits."

"Cheeky," Naruko grinned brightly.

"Ya calling the pot black here kettle," Yusuke returned, grinning at Naruko's adorable giggle of pure, unsullied innocence, "Getting back on track you'll need the energy for the training regime I'm gonna put you through at the crack of dawn to earn your little present I've got in store for you next week."

"What present?" Naruko perked up, glancing at Yusuke's mischievous grin with eyes full of curiosity.

"Sorry. Can't tell ya," He said, "That'll spoil the surprise you know."

"Aw, c'mon!" Naruko begged, giving Yusuke the puppy dog eyed look as she doodled her finger tenderly on his torso, sending a tingling sensation through him, "Don't torture a girl, Yu-chan."

"You are aware what curiosity does to the cat right?" He asked, teasingly pinching Naruko's whiskered cheek, which prompted the girl to pout, "And you've got the textbook features groupin' ya with the felines, putting ya on top of curiosity's kill list."

"Meanie," Naruko huffed, puffing out her recently pinched left cheek and deflating it by landing Yusuke's pack again, "Oh well. Guess I'll just hafta work _extra _hard to wound your conscious enough to get ya to tell me."

"Better hold tightly onto your seven leaf clover then." Yusuke suggested in a lackadaisical manner, prompting Naruko to puff her chest out as wide as she could against to Yusuke's chest with childish arrogance.

"Insinuating Naruko Uzumaki needs luck. Ha! Luck's got nothing on hard-earned, dripping blood, sweat, and tears."

"Not unnecessarily, babes. A stroke of fortune is often all a contender needs in a scrimmage to swing the momentum in their favour entirely," And the lord knew he had used his fair-share of reliance on luck before he became this disgustingly powerful. His first fight with Hiei came to mind. If that last Spirit Gun he fired had somehow missed the mirror he targeted he would've been sent packing to the spirit world, "Do I even need to touch upon the possibility of luck playing a pivotal role in life-altering events?"

"Guess not," The ponytailed kunoichi admitted with a sheepish smile pulling at her lips, "Wasn't thinking about that."

"This noggin of yours," He accentuated his topic by lightly knocking his knuckles onto Naruko's forehead, "Is never switched on. But that's okay," He tightened his arms securely around Naruko's petite form, "'Cause the power in mine only recently got juiced up to operate at full capacity."

"And that's why we're so good together, 'cuz our similarities make us compatible."

"Nailed it."

The Wolf and His Vixen

**C**

**H**

**A**

**P**

**T**

**E**

**R**

**TWO**

One Step at Time

Naruko dawdled miserably out of the door of her and Yusuke's shared apartment shortly followed by her aforementioned lover himself, in her usual attire of a V-neck sleeveless orange blouse over a long-sleeved white t shirt, blue three quarters jeans over black-leggings, and orange sandals on her feet. Her headband was still situated around her neck, leaving room on her forehead for her goggles to be placed.

"Till can't believe I couldn't coax my secret reward outta ya before today," She sighed, slumping her shoulders the same time Yusuke locked the main door of their home.

"Better luck next time," He said in an offhanded manner, tucking his keys away inside of his pocket.

"Meanie. You're just rubbing it in now," Naruko said with a petulant glare reflecting off of Yusuke's dispassionate countenance.

"Am I?" The green-clad young man asked with blatant feign ignorance, leading the way toward the stairs, but not before earning himself a fierce nod from Naruko.

"Yes you did!" Naruko declared, wrapping her arms around Yusuke's, "And don't you forget it."

"Don't forget 'what' now, babe?"

"Oi!" A round of chortles ensued from Yusuke following Naruko's petulant protest, "Meanie!"

"Worth it," Yusuke grinned teasingly, prompting the girl on his arm to huff, "Now with that flippant dispute out of the way, shall we haul ass to gramps' so you can reap the rewards of your hard work?" His recommendation was enough to cause Naruko's emotions to flip from sulky, to buoyantly carefree.

"You betcha."

XxX

Nothing of significance really happened on Yusuke's and Naruko's trek to the Hokage's tower other than running into the Leaf Village's strongest man's wannabe disciple, aka Konohamaru, but he was already hugely insignificant.

Yusuke would've just sauntered on past him with a brief, uncaring greeting of, "hey" tossed his way, if Naruko hadn't of stopped for a bit to chat with the boy. It turned out now that Naruko's year group had officially graduated into ninja-hood, a new set of rookies had been emitted, Konohamaru being one of them.

So after pretending to care to congratulate the boy, Yusuke bid the kid farewell and led Naruko to the hokage.

Only, they had to change direction entirely when they came within range of the tower with Yusuke's senses telling him Hiruzen was vacant from his office.

"Wonder why the old man's here in the academy of all the places," Naruko said, feeling a fair dose of nostalgia wash over her ambling through the hallway of her once most hated place. Ah. How times have changed.

She almost felt old.

"Probably just stopped by to evaluate the newbies, or something," Yusuke offered to reason, heaving an ounce of tobacco from his second cigarette since the unimportant Konohamaru-encounter. Dealing with his fanboy always aroused his nerves, "Or maybe he just wanted the fresh air. Honestly, if I was stuffed in that box of an office I'd want a taste of freedom myself."

"You make a point," Naruko conceded with a bashful smile, "Honestly, I never actually considered the ramifications of me becoming the first female Hokage in history. I only wanted recognition 'cuz I was tired of getting only the cold shoulder from everyone."

"That's why the power up here," He lightly tapped Naruko's forehead for emphasis, "-Should be left on, just to narrow the chances of you making an impulsive decision you could come to regret later down the line, like taking up the throne of village-ruler. Sure, that may sound glamorous initially, but as soon as you realize the position confines you to the village you may think 'ehh. You know what? This ain't all it's cracked up to be'."

"I wouldn't even be able to take missions?" Naruko asked with a terrified expression.

"Na," Yusuke confirmed blatantly, "As head honcho, your role's to more or less emulate a big bad, that being sitting on your throne and sending out your lackeys to do the work for ya."

"No way," Naruko said in disbelief, grasping her mouth even if she knew how hugely rhetorical her protest was.

Yusuke grinned in a victorious manner, "Lovely. You're quick on the up take, babes," He said, drawing a scoff of dismissal from the petite whiskered-cheek girl.

"I always am!" And she really was too. Regardless of her initial stupidity when he walked into her life, Naruko was a fast learner, able to grasp the advanced words Yusuke said to her from his own vocabulary pool after a brief description.

It made Yusuke's job of educating his bird even easier that it already was. What she may have lacked in smarts, she easily made up by being an innately talented prodigy.

Truthfully, If Hiruzen had ordered that Jiraiya-guy back to take care of Naruko or even summoned a clone to raise her she could've been a genius already.

"Sure are." Yusuke's grin widened as he leaned down to kiss Naruko's cheek, prompting her to smile in a bashful fashion.

"Still can't believe how boring being Hokage actually is," Naruko said with a sigh, following Yusuke's lead to a door, "Think I got a lot more respect for the old man now, 'cuz there's just no way in hell I could sit in an office without going out on missions, being the adventurous girl I am."

"Amen." Was Yusuke's definitive ending quote the instance he swivelled to saunter into the classroom with Naruko right behind him, not at all surprised to see team seven already in there along with Iruka, his white-haired fellow academy instructor, and the Hokage. Though what did surprise him was the closeness of Sasuke and Hinata.

"Howdy," Yusuke's casual greeting drew a flinch from the squad leader and Sasuke.

When they each turned around they found the sneer of Yusuke taunting them and the blank look of Naruko taking in their forms.

"Oh! Hi ya, guys," Naruko said chirpily, letting go of Yusuke's arm to approach her former classmates, closely observing the hand of Hinata's wrapped around Sasuke's arm, "I didn't know you guys would be here for a mission too."

"This encounter comes as much as a surprise to us as it does to you, Naruko-chan," Hinata said.

"Humph. Probably not all of us," Sasuke clarified with a petulant grumble, hands stacked into his pockets.

A look of recognition flashed across Naruko's features, "What a sec," She rounded on Yusuke to give his sneering visage a suspicious look, "You knew they were here already, and you didn't tell me."

"Wanted it to be a surprise," Yusuke smoothly reasoned with a shrug.

"Jerk," Naruko pouted, folding her arms over her chest with a quick jerk of her head away from Yusuke's sight, "I bet there ain't even a reward for all my hard work these past two weeks. You just wanted to troll me like you always do."

"While I do like fucking with ya in more ways than one, make no mistake, your bonus treat's very much real," Yusuke said with no truces of amusement or jest on his features, despite the fact his insinuation prompted everyone but Naruko, Kakashi and Hiruzen to cringe in an awkward fashion, "Care to clarify, gramps?"

"Indeed, I have a mission ready for you to take," Hiruzen's confirmation caused Naruko and Iruka to fall into a stupor, though Kakashi's students all enveloped blank looks on their faces, 'Such audacity, to insinuate such a thing in public. He is as shameless as he is powerful,' A bad combination in of itself.

"A mission?" Naruko mumbled, wanting to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, "You mean like a real mission, one that requires us to leave the premises."

"Pretty much." Yusuke confirmed lackadaisically, sticking his cigarette into his mouth.

"Hold on just a sec-!" Iruka tried in desperation, though his words were lost the instance Naruko threw herself at Yusuke, mindful of his cigarette as she tossed her arms around his neck.

"Yay! We're finally gonna go on a real mission!" She cheered, fervently rubbing her cheek against Yusuke's, "Thank you, Yu-chan. I love you."

"You're preaching to the choir, babes."

Naruko dislodged herself from Yusuke and turned to the trio of rookies under the one-eyed masked-guy to flash them a peace sign in a bragging manner, "Look guys, I'm gonna go on a mission!~"

"Congratulations, Naruko-chan," Hinata said.

"You've earned it," Sasuke added on in a nonchalant fashion.

"Well done," Chouji ended in between his mouthfuls, prompting Naruko to beam.

"Yusuke-sama," Iruka paused, mindful of his tongue least he received a thrashing from the leaf village's strongest resident. The cool, distant look of barely restrained patience he received from Yusuke only solidified his beliefs that he should word his protest carefully, "While I'm fully aware of your strength, don't you think it's much too early in Naruko's development to consider taking her out on a mission? I mean, she's only just graduated from the academy."

"No," He said, "An expedition to who knows where could do her experience some good, know-what-I-mean?"

"Hmm-mmm!" Naruko agreed with vigour, nodding happily.

"But-."

"Cram it with the sentimentalities, _mom_," The chain-smoker quipped acerbically, getting the attached chunin to flinch, "My decisions are final, end of story."

Iruka's face twisted in agony, conflicted over whether to press the matter further and risk a beating or docilely concede and save face.

Considering even if he did take the former, his sentiments would just be met with cold, iron fists of fury in all the wrong places that didn't necessarily include his private parts on his body; this wasn't a particularly difficult dilemma.

He would rather take the latter and walk out of here with wounded pride as opposed to being carried out of here on a stretcher with damaged ribs.

"Understood milord," The scar-faced chunin said in acceptance. Upon feeling a hand land on his shoulder, he traced its source and found the comforting smile of the white-haired man, "Mizuki?"

"It'll be okay, Iruka. I'm sure Yusuke-sama wouldn't have considered taking Naruko out for her first mission if she wasn't ready," He reasoned, "And besides, who's really going to be enough of a threat to Yusuke-sama out there huh?"

"I guess you're right Mizuki," Iruka gave Mizuki a weak smile in appreciation, "Thanks."

"Anytime."

"If you two butt buddies are done with your pick-me-up moment.-" Yusuke said, causing the two to smile sheepishly.

"Yu-chan!"

"-Then I would like to be assigned to my mission so me and my bird can be on our way," He continued blithely, sauntering forward to Hiruzen whom reached underneath the desk he was sitting at to rummage through a drawer.

"I, Yusuke-san. I believe the way you intended to phrase your last sentence was, uh 'My bird and I,' because referring to yourself secondly in a clause is grammatically accurate," Hinata said, correcting Yusuke's previous slip up in a kind-exterior that put a smirk on Sasuke's face and several gawking expressions on her seniors' ones.

'It seems Yusuke-sama isn't the only one with audacity,' Hiruzen mused with an internal chuckle.

"Sure. If you wanna be a grammar Nazi," Yusuke lazily retorted, situating his arm behind his head, tossing out his next choice of words as though they were as natural as the grass itself, "Mrs Uchiha." Needlessly to say, Hinata's face did its best emulation of a red tomato and Chouji just briefly stopped eating, staring blankly at his two teammates.

"You bastard, I'll kill you-!" Sasuke yelled heatedly, tussling forward, though was calmed significantly by the gentle palm of Hinata landing squarely on his chest.

"Sasuke-kun, please calm down," Hinata pleaded, placating Sasuke's temper with a tightening grip around his arm.

"Alright." Sasuke said.

"Hahaha! She's got ya wrapped around her finger, eh Sasuke?" Yusuke teased, earning himself a glare from the last solitary Uchiha.

"Go to hell!" The Uchiha's abrasive recommendation got the bird from Yusuke.

"Yu-chan!" Naruko protested, but only earned Yusuke's usual faux-looks of innocence whenever she accused him of being a douchebag, "Dummy." She turned to the accused lovers with a polite smile, "Sorry, guys. Just ignore Yu-chan! He's just a big dummy jerk!"

"Well I jerk off to ya, so I guess that makes me a jerk by association." The accused jerk quipped in an insouciant demeanour, prompting Naruko to stick her tongue out at him.

"Don't forget to add wise-guy to that list too," Sasuke said grumpily, trying to glare off the sneer Yusuke sent his way following his own quip.

"Bet you can relate to jerking off, right Sasuke?"

"I will kill you in your sleep."

"Heh, I'd like to see ya try, bitch."

"My, you certainly have a knack for livening the atmosphere, Yusuke-sama," Sheepishly noted the silver-haired instructor of Chouji, Sasuke, and Hinata, prompting Naruko to stare at him blankly.

"What can I say, ol' Cyclops? I don't crash the party, I bring it," Yusuke quipped.

"That you do," The dubbed cyclops said informally, rummaging through his pouch situated on his rear to pull out an orange book. Besides the headband tilted vertically on his forehead to cover up his left eye to give him the nickname cyclops, Kakashi lived up to his namesake with (his) spiked up gravity defying silver hair. His last remaining distinguishing features were the mask that covered the lower half of his face. His attire was only the stereotypical chunin/jounin outfit both Iruka and Mizuki were wearing, nothing out of the ordinary to note.

"Oh. You must be Hinata-chan's and the guys' sensei, Kakashi right?" Naruko inquired with a friendly smile, drawing a nonchalant look of curiosity from Kakashi, "Name's Naruko, pleased ta meetcha."

"Likewise." He replied as if he didn't already know of the leaf's weapon being an experienced jounin who was young enough to remember the attack of the Kyuubi no Yoko.

"Here." Hiruzen said, passing a scroll over to Yusuke.

"Okay," Yusuke said, spinning the scroll skilfully on his index finger, "What's this about? C'mon _gaffer_, don't hold out on us. Give us a brief sketch of our assignment."

"There has been a request from Hoshigakure to protect an obscured meteorite they refer to as the 'star'," Hiruzen summarized as requested from Yusuke.

"The star?" Iruka asked with a blink of his eyes.

"Yes," Hiruzen confirmed, propping his elbows onto the desk to make a makeshift bridge of his intertwined hands, "I fear not much is known on the cryptic star other than it happens to be their most treasured possession."

"So all we gotta do is play bodyguards to ward off any opportunist willing to try their luck and cat nab the treasured diamond, huh? Piece of cake," Yusuke summarized with a casual shrug.

"Aw, I was hoping to kick some tail, put all my training these past two weeks to good use," Yusuke's blond ponytailed partner complained, earning herself a curious look from Hinata.

"There might still be the chance, if whoever has their sights set on the star has the stones to try and nab it," Yusuke offered, sauntering toward the exit, prompting Naruko to follow him instinctively.

"I hope so," Naruko said, walking out of the classroom after Yusuke had, "A girl needs to show off her stuff after all."

The remaining occupants were left staring at the door in an awkward silence. Clearly, the lively conversation came with the lovebirds and left with them. Fortunately, it briefly came back in the form of Naruko's head, an apologetic look on her whiskered face.

"Oh. Bun-Bye guys, have fun on your end of things, K?"

XxX

Outside of the massive walls of Konoha, Yusuke and Naruko were positioned, the former standing up with a bag slung over his shoulder and a list in his hand, and the latter kneeled down rummaging through her own backpack rummaging through her belongings as par Yusuke's order.

"Got everything?"

"Check!"

"Toothbrush?"

"Check!"

"Change of duds?"

"Check!"

"Arsenal loaded up?"

"Check!"

"Comb?"

"Uh." Her hesitancy only lasted a brief moment because Yusuke pulled out the aforementioned object from the back of his pocket with a deadpanned expression on his face, handling it over to the forgetful, but grateful girl, "Have now!"

"Right," Yusuke said sarcastically, looking at the list he held in his hand, "What else?" He scratched his head, "Map?" Naruko opened her mouth to reply, but Yusuke cut her off, "Eh, on second thought, don't answer that. I got it," He exhibited the map from his pocket before putting it back to whence it came from, getting a dry smile from Naruko, "Hey, hey! Don't gimme that look."

"Really, and I'm the forgetful one?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, air-headed vacancy generally comes with being a foxy bimbo."

"I dunno whether to feel insulted or flattered that you just called me stupid and hot all in one sentence."

"That's why feeling both is an option," Yusuke said flippantly, eliciting a roll of the eyes from Naruko, "And lastly to round off our evaluation of our supplies, got your tits and ass inflated?"

"Presto!" Naruko beamed rashly, waving her arms wide over her head.

"You sure?" Yusuke asked, blithely latching onto Naruko's left breast to observe its size and mostly cushy texture for himself, prompting Naruko to squeak with a blush appearing across her cheeks, "Cause your melons tell a different story entirely."

"You perv!" The groped girl yelled, throwing a punch at Yusuke.

Coolly stepping to the side to allow the refreshing breeze fabricated from Naruko's fist to sail inches past his chin, Yusuke neatly swept Naruko's feet from underneath her, causing her to begin a descent toward the ground, "Mind that fall," Nonchalantly said, he smoothly wrapped his arm around Naruko's breasts to keep her from hitting the dirt floor, grinning leeringly at her rear, "Guess I'll help myself to a piece of pie."

His free unoccupied hand ricocheted off of Naruko's backside, leaving it jiggling for a second or two and Naruko squealing in pain.

"Least it jiggles," Yusuke grinned, spanking Naruko's butt again.

"Ouchy! That hurts, ya stupid ecky perv!" Naruko cried, tears seeping from her eyes as she felt another resounding smack connect with her assaulted rear, causing her to fume in a show of bravado, "Ooo! Someday, I'm gonna get ya back pervert!"

"That'll be the day pigs master the intricate art of flight, milady," Yusuke quipped dismissively, feeling the lushly stinging sensation of Naruko's jelly shaking backside against his palm, increasing his own stimulation. Significantly stimulated, Yusuke spanked her three more times in quick succession for a good measure.

"Just you wait and see buddy," Naruko smirked, leaving Yusuke's embrace with her hands nursing her sore butt.

"That'll be a decade from now with your lousy chakra control," Yusuke said, adding on to his sneering remark with dry, wry humour, "Better remember to take my meds, eh? Don't wanna kick the bucker before you can show me whose boss, huh?"

"Jerk," Naruko grumbled with a sigh, allowing her hands to fall from her rear to hang limply at her sides, "Yu-chan?" She asked with a whisper, exuding vulnerability that made Yusuke rethink mocking her any further.

"What's eating at ya, babes?" He asked.

"Well," She gulped, lifting up her hand to her chest self-consciously, "Are my breasts really that small?" Yusuke groaned, having already known that this was coming the moment she touched her chest. Goddamned insecurity, "Don't ya like girls with small chests?"

"Damn Naru," Yusuke tittered in a good-natured manner, wrapping an arm around Naruko's shoulder, "You know I was only pulling your leg with that whole 'is your tits and ass inflated enough?' question. Yeesh. You don't really think I'm that insensitive do ya?"

"But you always insinuate that you like ladies with big breasts when we watch porn together," Naruko said, shifting her gaze sadly away from Yusuke's.

"So? All that means is I like a little variety, kinda like when I roll in to a food joint to grab a bite. Depending on my hunger at the time my preference can vary from small, to medium and large," He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head when Naruko gave him a bizarre expression, "Though I guess that analogy doesn't fit huh?"

"Gee. You think?" Naruko said sarcastically.

"Point made," Yusuke conceded, "But that doesn't invalidate my point."

"I-I guess," The innocently ocean-eyed girl stuttered, rubbing her elbow, "It's just that-."

"If you're worried about feeling less of a lady with small cups, then don't be." Yusuke dismissed, "You're only thirteen you know. Last time I checked, you weren't done spouting fully." Naruko's eyes were now wide with hope.

"You mean my breasts will get bigger?"

"Sure. Give yourself another three or four years at most and you'll fill out nicely, guaranteed."

A usual pair of arms folded neatly and simply around his neck in a hug of gratitude, followed by a whiskered-cheek massaging his own.

"Thanks, Yu-chan. I dunno what I would do without ya and big sis, Ayame."

Ayame and her father Teuchi were the only two individuals (before Yusuke arrived) in this entire fucking city-sized village that actually gave Naruko the time of day, beside the Hokage himself. They owned a ramen restaurant. Naturally, their kind hospitality had prompted Naruko to visit their humble little restaurant on scarce occasions for a bowl of ramen.

Ramen ultimately was the Japanese-equivalent of American's burger king and Naruko, for as much as she had come to adore ramen due to her visits to Ichiraku's, didn't wish to pack on the pounds.

Fortunately, though, she had gone there enough to form a sisterly bond with Teuchi's daughter, Ayame. This really worked out in Yusuke's favour, especially when Naruko got her first period. He sprung her on Ayame and let her explain the many intricate working of the girl's body to her.

Hey, he would educate his girl as much as he could, but even he had his limits.

"No probs. Now, strap up. Time to hit the road."

Dislodging herself from Yusuke, Naruko nodded in a determined manner, picking up her bag from the ground. After closing it up, she tucked both of her arms into the straps, not wanting to imitate Yusuke's one-shoulder strap style. She was her own person and she wouldn't sully her image by trying to copy the traits of another.

"Ha. I was born ready," Naruko smirked foxily.

"Good," Yusuke said, ushering Naruko around to gaze at the tall structure of Konoha's gates, unwittingly putting a cloud of shy apprehension she depicted well with a swallow over her head. She had to confess, this was her very first time legally stepping foot outside of the perimeters of Konoha. This newfound privilege was enough to make her heart race with excitement.

"The open world takes no prisoners."


	4. A Night Under the Stars

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Naruto**

* * *

"Wow."

Stepping out of the perimeters of the village and into the open world for the first time was a refreshing experience for the young blond-haired kunoichi.

The very first step she had taken out of the village's gates, were like her very first steps into womanhood, even if she was accompanied by her far stronger significant other. His obligatory company didn't lessen the experience for her or undermine the significance of her very first mission.

On the contrary, because she loved doing everything with Yusuke she was glad he was right behind her, scratching the back of his head with bored disinterest.

"Wow, Yu-chan," Naruko said, taking in her surroundings with innocent fascination, "This, is," She continued, pronouncing each word with a short inhale as if building up the suspense, tucking both of her arms inwards, "Awesome!~" Inevitably, she exploded in an uproar of cheerful delight, throwing both of her hands in the air like she just didn't care.

Her partner still remained far less than enthusiastic despite her courageous attempt to spread her seemingly infectious cheerful nature onto him, "Good to hear," He said, sauntering past the still statue-esque Naruko, "Now try not to get too far ahead. Never know what might jump out in an attempt of an ambush on us, know-what-I-mean?"

"Party pooper," Naruko teased, grabbing onto her bag straps before falling in line with the de-facto leader.

"As it's been established already, I'm the one who brings the party, so logically speaking I should be able to take it away."

"The interaction with Hinata-chan's team doesn't count!"

"Sure as hell does."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-nuh."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-nuh."

"Nuh-uh!"

Uh-nuh."

"Nuh-uh!"

Their playful, good-natured banter would carry them several miles forward and only end once nightfall came and their stomach rambled, signifying their hunger.

Naruko was left in awe by the ease of which Yusuke casually plucked two trees from their roots to contrive makeshift primitive couches for them. Though as awe-inspiring as it was seeing a demonstration of her boyfriend's otherworldly physical prowess live in action it was also disheartening.

How was she supposed to stand alongside her Yu-chan as his nigh equal if his power had already transcended to an unmatchable level? It made her feel sad, the prospect of never truly being an asset to the young man she loved with all her heart.

She couldn't even slay their targeted prey chosen to be their meal. The grizzly bear effortlessly knocked her to the side like a rag doll, evoking Yusuke's rage whom lifted it up with a single hand, then snapped its neck, leaving Naruko feeling really helpless sat on her knees.

XxX

_The Wolf and His __Vixen_

**F**

**O**

**U**

**R**

_A Night Under the Stars_

As the sizzling fire situated below their tied up dead and skinned bear echoed indistinctly, Naruko sat on the tree trunk opposite to Yusuke's, her knees buckled closely together and leaned to the side in a proper ladylike fashion, her hands on her lap. She stared into the cracking flames as if she was trying to envision herself as a worthy partner for her lover, and sighed.

"What's on your mind, honey?" Yusuke asked, sitting on the soft soil beneath the floored tree trunk, using it as an arm rest to prop both of his arms across it in a relaxed manner, leaving his right leg stretched out and his left leg curled up. He brought his head down from his lovely view of the night sky littered with tiny sparkles representing the stars to survey his sighing girlfriend, and became concerned at her fidgety posture, "You know you can talk to me about anything right?"

"I know," The azure-eyed girl murmured defensively, tightening her grasp on her knees a little tighter, "It's just-." She stalled with a twitch.

Luckily, Yusuke was not just some stereotypical warrior who only acted on brawns without any semblance of brains, thus he was able to smartly piece together the cause of her plight using her defeat against the bear as a clutch, "Is this about earlier?"

"Gee. Was I that obvious?"

"Meh. Maybe a little."

Naruko sighed, grateful for Yusuke's leniency, "How am I meant to catch up to ya when you're so tough Yu-chan?" She sobbed, dropping her head to her lap, "Your strength just seems like an impossible pinnacle to reach."

"That is a problem."

"So how do I go about bridging the gap between us, Yu-chan?"

Good question. How did a simple human with human limitations go about endeavouring to reach the lofty heights of a demon reborn? "You don't." The simple answer was not even a positive answer at all, and Yusuke wasn't going to sugar coat that.

"Gee. Thanks for the vote of confidence," Naruko deadpanned with a bitter ironic smile.

"Look baby," Yusuke said with a patience picked up from Kurama, sweeping his right hand out in a presenting kind of manner, "I'm on a next plane field entirely, one most contenders wouldn't be able to reach in a lifetime. That's nothing to be shame of."

"But Yu-channnnn!~" Naruko whined persistently, rubbing her knees together, which shifted her feet further part from each other, leaning forward with pouty lips, "I want to be useful to you!" Her bright blue eyes sparkled, "Please Yu-chan. Tell me a way I can be as strong as you."

"Can't."

"But why!"

"I'm not a miracle worker, honey. I can't magically poof up a sure-fire method that'll transcend ya to Goddess status."

"So I'll never," Tears gathered in the edges of Naruko's eyes, playing on Yusuke's conscious, who hated to see his baby girl cry, "-Be as strong as you," She hiccupped.

"Afraid not." A sigh left his mouth.

"You're mean!"

"Naru."

"No!" She turned away from him so quickly droplet of tears sprinkled from her eyes.

"Now you're just being a tsundere."

"I'm not being a tsundere! You take that back!" In a rapid, unnatural shift of emotion, Naruko's bitter sadness was hooked off of the stage to make way for self-righteous fury, the petite blond rounding on her chortling boyfriend with a glare.

"Oh, your reaction was so tsundere m'dear," Yusuke's wolfish stare only increased at Naruko's sulky face. The ponytailed girl crossed her right leg over her left one, crossing her arms impatiently, "Nice to see you're proving my point too. Looking real nice too by the way."

"Humph."

Shaking away the last remnants of playful devilry from his system, Yusuke continued his patient coaxing of Naruko, "But seriously, who cares if you can't reach my level? I don't. It doesn't change a thing between us. You're still my wifey, I'm still your hubby, and we still dig each other, right?" He shrugged in a bid to ward off any tension, "Ain't that what matters in the end?"

"I… guess so," She mumbled, unfurling her arms and sliding her right leg from over her left leg, feeling reassured of her de-facto husband's love, "But I really wanna be of use to ya, Yu-chan."

"That all?" He deadpanned as though Naruko wanted something as simple as ice cream, eliciting a nod from her, "Should've said so, honey."

"Thought I implied it well enough," Naruko retorted dryly.

"Meh. You don't have to be up to scratch with me to be a plus in our missions."

"Really?" Naruko pondered with a fanciful gaze in her azure orbs, getting a reassuring nod from Yusuke.

"Hell~Yeah!~"

"But how?" Naruko further pondered with uncertainty, lifting up a hand to her mouth, "How can I be helpful to ya if I'm not as strong as ya."

"You could be the brains to my brawns," Yusuke proposed.

"But you're smarter than me!" Naruko insisted.

"You make it sound like I'm some sorta super genius," Yusuke chuckled at the mere thought of him solving advance calculations on the level of Kurama, "I'm not just so you know. I'm just an average guy with lots of street smarts."

Question marks danced around Naruko's blank face, "Street smarts?"

"Right. Konoha's boys in blue don't have to deal with any yakuza gangs."

The reference to model day police scarce of super powers and mafia flew hugely over Naruko's head, "Boys in blue? Ya-ku-za?" She carefully worded, unable to decipher the unfamiliar terms, "What are ya talking about Yusuke Urameshi!?"

Wow, she actually used his full name. Since they had moved in together, she had never once referred to him without adding the honorific "chan" onto his abbreviated name. Now, she was mad. It was just unfortunate for her that Yusuke found her temper tantrum adorable.

"Chillax honey," Yusuke grinned roguishly at the intensifying glare of Naruko, "Me having street smarts only means I know how the world works, for better or for worse."

Naruko sighed, her intense angry softening to mild annoyance, "Wish you woulda just said that," She squirmed, "Sometimes I can't tell whether you're actually serious or just trolling me."

"Hey, I feel ya," Yusuke jerked a thumb at himself, "Trolling is my specialty, after all."

"Uh-huh." Naruko deadpanned.

"But make no mistake the terms I used are valid," Yusuke added, "They're only lost on ya because I ain't originally from around these neck-in-the-woods," Naruko cringed, "Guess you kinda figured that out already, huh?"

"Uh-huh," Naruko said, this time with uncertainty, "I figured, but-." Part of her always knew Yusuke wasn't of this world, his otherworldly strength being a big red light, but she had repressed such thoughts so they wouldn't haunt her at random times of the day.

"You worried I'm gonna just clear out one day to return to my roots without ya?" He guessed, earning himself a brief shocked look from Naruko before she quickly realized who she was talking to, so she nodded shortly afterward, "Don't be."

"But Yu-chan!" She tried, dropping from her perch to land on her knees, hesitating, "Wouldn't you ever want to go back home and see all you-." Naruko ceased her impulsive utterance, realizing this was the first time she had thought about Yusuke having a life outside of her. She had been so overjoyed about having someone to finally love when he stepped into her life that she had completely neglected the thought of Yusuke having a family or friends who would mourn his disappearance from their lives as much as she would from hers.

How selfish of her.

'Yu-chan.'

"Come here," Yusuke gently ordered upon seeing Naruko scooting back.

"But Yu-chan!" Naruko looked like she wanted to resist Yusuke's invitation but the words wouldn't come to her.

"I'm not gonna bite you know," Yusuke grinned at the fidgety girl, beckoning her toward him with a sweeping palm, "So bring your sexy ass here and lemme give ya the good stuff."

Reassured by Yusuke's jesting tone, Naruko crawled her way over to him. Fortunately, they had set their roasting bear off a little to the side so it wouldn't impede their wonderful view of each other, thus it was a straight path for Naruko to reach Yusuke.

It still felt like hours to her, though given the aura of uncertainty she was exuding but once she did, she melted contently into his embrace, "Oh Yu-chan," She murmured, folding a leg over his, resting her head on his shoulder.

"What am I gonna do with ya?" He joked, blanketing her shoulder with his beefy arm, drawing a giggle from her as she snuggled into him.

"Oh I dunno. Maybe take me with ya?"

She had worded her suggestion in jest to correspond with Yusuke's jokey personality, which the young man did pick up. However, Yusuke didn't joke about inevitably taking his baby girl with him where ever he stayed, "You know it."

"Eh?" Naruko looked into Yusuke's eyes with curiosity.

"Eh nothing. You don't really think I would ever run off without my wifey, do ya?"

"Well, no, but," Naruko squirmed on the side of his body, "I was only joking 'cuz I know how jokey you like to act."

"Well, yeah. I understand where you're coming from, really I do, but there's a time and a place for that," Yusuke explained, "This ain't it because it unintentionally implies I would just up and abandon ya to carry on with my life, something I couldn't do, not after all the cruelty I've shown the villagers in retaliation of their emotional abuse of ya. Boy, they would have a field-day with you if I ever disappeared off of the map."

An emotionally secure blanket shrouded Naruko's petite form despite the potential prospect of being the whipping girl of the villagers to an even higher degree. Such emotional security made a smile sweep across her lips, "Thank you," She closed the distance between their faces, capturing his lips, moving her tongue to meet his half-way while caressing his cheeks with the palms of her hands. He pressed her closer to him, and in doing so deepened the kiss, sliding his hands smoothly down her back to cup her rear, grooming it delicately.

Even when the kiss broke Yusuke never removed his hands from her backside.

"I really am a lucky girl to have ya, aren't I?"

"More like I'm lucky to have you babe."

"I disagree."

"And I disagree in return."

Naruko pouted and Yusuke grinned widely, baring his fangs, her one weakness.

"Let's just say we're both lucky to have each other, deal?"

"Deal!~"

Naruko sighed, with an ironic smile on her lips, "What am _I _gonna do with ya, huh?"

"We can work that out after we eat. Whaddya say?"

"Mmm-hmm!"


	5. Deception's the Name of the Game

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYu Hakusho or Naruto**

* * *

Reinvigorated by the night of reassurance, Naruko went right back to her observation of the outside world with big doe eyes of unsullied purity the very next morning, whilst Yusuke watched his baby girl with amusement in his eyes, instead of the bored indifference he had surveyed her with all of yesterday ago, a new appreciation of her innocence befalling him.

It was both hilarious and comforting to possess the knowledge that Naruko could be so easily cheered up with a little honesty and genuine loving of reassurance. He didn't have to sweet-talk her with sugary lies to bring her out of her depression so he wouldn't have to deal with it any longer, no. He could be plainly honest and sincere with his words to turn her frown upside down.

He loved that about her, that incapability of holding grudges or PMS-ing like most other girls knew how to do as well as painting their nails. Naruko, however, was not like most other girls. She was even unconcerned about her looks and if it wasn't for Yusuke she would cheerfully stroll out of her apartment looking like she never had one.

In other words, she was the epitome of a happy-go-lucky bubblehead, which to her lover, gave her individuality.

"Wow. They're so cute."

Yusuke watched Naruko doting over the small animals with fondness in his eyes. He couldn't even remember a time where he was even half as pure as her, given his ill-bred upbringing in the slums.

In that sense, they contrasted each other perfectly.

Yusuke being the boy who had grew up well ahead of his years, and Naruko being the girl who never grew up, and now it was up to Yusuke to protect and guide her on the right path.

Yusuke traced the dancing blond from the side of their dirt path trail where she had been cooing at an animal and into distance, captivated by the radiating smile she gave him with those sparkling sky blue coloured eyes of purity, "How much longer to go now, Yu-chan? I'm soo~ excited."

Yusuke tittered coolly, lifting up an arm to extend a pointed index finger forward, "Last stretch now, babe."

"Yay!~" Naruko chucked her arms up, drawing more chuckles from Yusuke as he settled his hands on his hips, "In that case, I'm gonna go on ahead," She lowered her arms to her chest, "Really wanna check out the scenery."

"Sure. But don't go nuts 'till I get there y'hear?"

"Right!" With a nod of blissful obedience, Naruko gripped the straps of her backpack with vigour, pivoting on her heels and dashing off, leaving a trail of dust in her wake.

"That's my girl," He grinned as he whipped out a cigarette to light up.

XxX

Naruko eagerly paced into a clearance, still having the presence of mind to slam on the breaks the moment any semblance of solid ground disappeared from her view.

"Whoa!" She gasped, surveying the other cliff disconnected from the one she was on with wonder, "That must be where Hoshigakure is!" She clenched her fists, "My very first real mission. I'm not gonna mess this up. No way."

She surveyed her surroundings for anything resembling a bridge to ascertain how they were going to get across, "Wonder how we're gonna get across," She crossed her arms, frowning in deep contemplation, "Drats! Thinking makes my head hurt!" She shook her head, looking forward, "Wonder why the bridge is out anyway," There she goes, trying to think again.

She took a tentative step forward to look down into the abyss at the bottom of the cliff, but recoiled from a speeding arrow planting itself firmly into the edge of her cliff.

"Kyaa!" Naruko squeaked, turning to the direction the arrow shot from, her tsundere-rage flaring, "Hey! What gives?"

Another projectile was fired, but this time Naruko was ready for it, thus didn't cringe from its precise landing. The sharp end of a rope hook pierced the top of her cliff, creating a convenient bridge granting access to the other side.

Intrigued by this new turn of events, Naruko trailed the rope to the other side with a defiant glare in her fiery eyes, finding the culprit sprinting across it with what she assumed was purpose.

The nameless shinobi wore a sleeveless blue shirt underneath the shinobi's trademark fishnet armour for extra security, a purple scarf tied around his neck, black armbands strapped across his forearms, beige jean shorts and toed sandals fitted upon his feet.

What really sold his status of "bad-guy" for the blond ponytailed girl was the gas mask over his face.

"Heh. So you came to tangle with me personally, did ya?" She smirked, forming the criss-cross hand seal, making him form his own unique hand seal reflexively, "Fine by me pal. Heh. I was just waiting for a chance to put my training to good use anyway."

A cloud of smoke flared into existence, slowly wafting away to reveal six additions of the original blond, all with familiar expressions.

"How do ya like that?" She bragged, but was unable to decipher his expression behind his gas mask. He did monitor his new opponents with hasty nods Naruko could interpret as worried, but did nothing really substantial to go on as he showed his own proverbial hand.

"Kujaku Myoho (Ninja art: Kujaku)." His voice echoed from his mask.

"Kujaku- what?"

Naruko watched a sheet of grapefruit-coloured chakra spread across the ninja's back like the wings of an eagle in fascination.

"Whoa. That's some intense chakra," She would be more shocked if she hadn't seen Yusuke's aura before. Compared to the intensity of Yusuke's aura, this was nothing but a light breeze, "But I've seen better. Get him, ladies."

The clones sprung into life, leaping at their prey to provide Naruko with a demonstration of how the strange-looking chakra worked so she could piece together enough of a strategy to overcome it. As she expected, they were taken out without much trouble on the clone-killer's part, popped right out of the air by the oddly-tinted chakra separating into individual parts to equal the clone's numbers as though they were stretch-arm doll arms.

"This is gonna be trickier than I thought," Naruko said under her breath.

"Hold up," Yusuke's lackadaisical voice drowned over the area, filling Naruko with hope they could easily swept this flunkey aside and continue on their way. She just knew this chump was going to get it now as her boyfriend made his appearance in a saunter, no semblance of haste in his stride.

"Yu-chan!" She happily called out in recognition.

Yusuke, however, drew in an ounce of rich tobacco, making Naruko pout at his flippant demeanour, "Might want to take a pause and size up the situation before you make any hasty decisions, baby."

"But Yu-chan!" Naruko protested, pointing sharply at her adversary, "That jerk attacked me!"

"Quite the opposite actually," He said, turning a scrutinizing glance to the accused one.

Naruko's confusion fanned away her temper, "Whaddya mean?" She asked, wheeling in her extended arm to conjoin her fists in a protective motion above her bosom.

Yusuke pointed into the distance beyond the cliff side with an index finger, causing Naruko to follow the trail his finger made, "Keep your eye on the birdie," He quipped, though the usual jest wasn't evident in his voice.

As suggested, Naruko saw a small white bird flying to the other side only just above the strange yellow fog emitting from the massive ravine below. The bird was swiftly ensnarled within the parameters of the mist and eviscerated as if it never existed.

"Oh no," She mourned the innocent creature's tragic death with a dewy-eyed look, "That poor birdie."

"Yep," Yusuke confirmed, indifferent to the bird's death. After all, Kuwabara was the animal lover, not him, "The stuff acts as a barrier to keep out pretenders wanting to get their grubby hands on their treasure, I presume."

"Wait a minute," Naruko became suspicious, "You knew about that thing and you didn't think to tell me?" She asked, solidifying her impatience by anchoring her hands on her hips stiffly.

Yusuke scratched the side of his cheek sheepishly, not at all bashful at his girlfriend's anger, but at his careless error, "Ehh, something like that might have slipped my mind, m'dear."

"You big dummy!"

"Hey, hey! Don't get tsundere on me little lady. You're the one who sprung into the fray, not me. I told ya not to go nuts before I got there to back ya up, but you didn't listen."

"I'm not a tsundere!"

A gruff sigh left the lips of the forgotten shinobi, "If you're done with your lovers quarrel," He said, eliciting a pout from Naruko as he removed his gas mask to reveal a handsome face and a crop of shoulder-length grey hair, red eyes, and most noticeably the headband tied around his forehead bearing the star insignia, "I would like to escort you to Hoshikage." His voice cleared up, "You are leaf ninja."

"Oh yeah!" Naruko smiled, flashing her headband from around her neck, "Leaf shinobi at your service! We're here to protect your treasure. Leave it to us, pal. We'll make sure it's safe. I guarantee."

"Rightttt. I feel so assured now."

"Never judge a book by its cover, pal," Yusuke remarked with a hard gaze in his eyes, not liking the implications of the boy's sarcasm, "Who knows, it may hold more surprises than you accounted."

Yusuke's piercing stare ironically reassured their client of his competence. Originally, he was just going to write them off as jokes given their initial team-incompetence and general lack of communication, and while the girl hadn't given him any reason to see her as nothing other than a fresh newbie like himself, the guy had a veteran look about him.

"I see." He said, running onto the rope. He stopped, turning to them and a sweeping an inviting arm in his direction in invitation, "Follow me."

"That's cool, but we've got our means of transportation," Yusuke smirked, rounding to his partner's side.

"We have?" Naruko blinked, melting into the touch of her boyfriend, his arms embracing her hip and her shins.

"Sure do," He confirmed, sweeping Naruko off of her feet, grinning roguishly at her blank expression, "Hold tight."

Hold tight she did indeed, feeling her stomach hurled upwards from the immense increase of their escalation.

The boy gasped breathlessly, staring skyward with wide eyes, "He can fly?" Only a small minority of select few villages possessed the ability of flight to pass down to their own shinobi, the star village being one of them. The fact that a leaf shinobi could was a worrying revelation in of itself. He had to wonder if other leaf shinobi had as much if not more mastery of flight as this brassy young man did.

"Hey! We'll meet ya on over in the village! Deuces!" Yusuke hollered, soaring in the direction of the star village.

"That idiot."

For Naruko, this was a whole new experience for her, to feel waves of pure air washing over her whiskered face, to feel the long twin strands of her blond hair suspended sideways, and to feel the soft, feathery sensation of the insubstantial clouds themselves sweeping harmlessly through her visage, all curled up in Yusuke's arms. All in all it was a blissful sensation.

"Wow, Yu-chan," Naruko murmured, sparing a glance down below, which surprisingly made her want to retch, but not because of the immeasurable height. The Forests, to her, kind of looked like a field of broccoli, and she hated broccoli. Yusuke practically had to force it down her throat whenever he made a meal comprising of the stuff.

"You never told me you could fly," Naruko remarked, "How come? Wouldn't it have been quicker to get here by flight instead of by foot?"

"Just never saw a point to," Yusuke explained, already long passed the phase in his development where it was fun to show off your unique abilities just for the sake of it, "Besides, I wanted you to experience the atmosphere outside the scope of the village yourself," He winked, "Flying would've ruined that."

"Well I'm glad we did walk!" Naruko snuggled into his cheek, "Otherwise I wouldn't have met all my new animal friends," A look of realization flashed across her face, "Oh yeah. That reminds me. Can we walk back after we're done here? There's a friend I would like to pick up," She smiled shyly, "If that's okay with you."

"Like I could ever say no to you princess," He sighed with a smile.

"Yay!" She nuzzled his cheek with extra appreciation, "You're the best!~"

"Don't I know it?"

XxX

The Wolf and His Vixen

**F**

**I**

**V**

**E**

Depiction's the Name of the Game 

XxX

The Village Hidden in the Stars was a small village bearing only a handful of nondescript wooden huts making up its structure.

It made Naruko sad thinking how low their ranks were in comparison to the Leaf' Villages own. The village's overall populace could've made up a district within Konoha's City-sized grounds.

Seeing as they had dropped right into the midst of the unknown village without their chosen escort, they were unceremoniously surrounded by suspicious ninja who threw out wild accusations at them, but Yusuke smooth talked them out of hostile territory. Once their chosen escort – a young inexperienced, but talented shinobi known as Sumaru – caught up to them as they were led directly to their leader.

"I'm pleased to see the leaf village responded to our distress call," The village leader said, only slightly put-off by the unprofessionalism his temporarily hired employees demonstrated throughout this briefing.

The two had quickly come in and established themselves, personal identities and collaboration, in the same brassy, confident demeanours as the other. While the girl had taken to propping herself down in front of him in seiza, it was clear she was only making a convenient pillow out of her lap for her partner's head to rest upon.

It was quite jarring to see a duo of shinobi so uncaring in their line of work. Usually, he would have to wonder if the village he had required their services from had even taken them and their plight seriously, but this one time he could let it slide…

"I'm the deputy Hoshikage, Akohoshi," He introduced himself with grace. Two purple-tinted strands of hair framed his oval-shaped face, though his star-marked headband kept the bangs out of his sea-coloured eyes. His hair was kept up in a ponytail. He flexed a high-collared sleeveless dark purple vest-like jacket over a blue trench coat falling to his waist, just over his grey pants.

The ends of his trousers were tucked into his black boots.

"Deputy?" Naruko blinked.

"Whatever happened to the sheriff?" Yusuke asked, one tucked behind his head and the other scratching his stomach with huge disinterest.

Akohoshi shook his head, feigning sadness, "He passed away a year ago quite suddenly."

"Quite suddenly, huh?" Yusuke asked, his intense, piercing glare contradicting his lackadaisical tone, causing Akohoshi to twitch slightly as though his very soul was grabbed by the presumptuous young man sprawled out on his girlfriend's lap.

"Yes, quite suddenly!" He recited defensively, just barely managing to stabilize his shaking palms on his lap before Sumaru could see his unease from his position over in the corner, 'What's with this brat? It's almost like he can see my plans from the depths of my very mind!'

"That doesn't matter, okay!" Fortunately, Sumaru's giant pride in his village blinded him to any signs worthy of suspicion from Akohoshi, "Even if we're without a proper Kage at this moment in time, the people of this village are inferior to-."

"You're inferior to me," Yusuke cut in, curling his head back as much as he could to offer the gobsmacked shinobi a smug sneer, ignoring Naruko's sigh.

"What did you say?" Sumaru demanded, but only Yusuke let out a cocky titter, telling him repeating himself would be redundant because he already got what he wanted from Sumaru's expression.

"Five minutes in and he's already being a jerk to someone," Naruko whispered underneath her breath. Why did she even bother to hope Yusuke could be nice to anyone other than her for a change?

'Yes, Sumaru. I've trained you well,' Akohoshi malevolently deduced, keeping his smug expression masqueraded with a pretence of strictness, "Sumaru! Watch your step!"

"But milord," He looked like he wanted to argue.

"These are our guests," Akohoshi said, sweeping a gesturing palm to the current bane of Sumaru's existence rested upon Naruko's lap, "I recommend you treat them with the same courtesy as they would if you were in their care."

"Them? _Him_?" Sumaru shot back with a grimace, picking himself up from the ground, his scathing glare never leaving Yusuke's form, "Give me a break. Outsiders are all the same!" He turned, marching out of the office in contempt.

"S'up with him?" Naruko bluntly asked.

Akohoshi shook his head, "My apologies leaf shinobi. I request you pardon my subordinate's show of impudence. Ever since the death of his parents ten years ago, he's harboured an instinctual distrust of outsiders."

"Oh no!" Naruko excused, sheepishly waving her hand, "We should be apologizing to you. Yu-chan has an unhealthy knack of getting under just about anyone's skins."

"And you don't?" Yusuke raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"At least I know how to be nice to people Mr 'I can't even apologize' for being a jerk!" She retorted, crossing her arms.

"That's what they all say, babe," He returned, ignoring the sulky look of warning Naruko flashed him, "At least I'm straight-up about it. But anyway," He gestured to the deputy, mockingly quoting Sumaru, "Please continue. Don't let our "lovers quarrel" stop ya."

"Yes, where was I?" Akohoshi said, "As you might have already guessed, the shinobi of our land aren't even qualified to have a kage but we possess a star those of the Five Great Nations covet. I believe one day we'll be able to harness the star's power and at last our village will begin to prosper."

"This star must be something else if your enemies are going out of their way to nab it," Naruko ventured to guess, feeling misty-eyed at the village's plight.

"Yes, our scouting team have gathered some useful intelligence." He confirmed with a nod, "They were able to accumulate enough data to ascertain there are two shinobi, possibly rogue from another village, after the village's most sacred possession."

"I see." Yusuke said with simple understanding, "What time and place was this captured, old man?"

For a brief, few seconds Naruko missed Akohoshi stalled, increasing Yusuke's suspicion, "Last week Tuesday, mid-day," He explained as smoothly as he could, closing his eyes in apology, "I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact time."

"Don't sweat it, old man. I don't expect you to remember every last detail," Yusuke waved his hand in dismissal to feign ignorance, 'Don't sweat it my ass. This whole 'filling in as deputy-thing' sounds dodgy, but it ain't like I got any solid proof to base my suspicions off besides just measly speculation,' He frowned internally, 'Just have to keep my ear close to the ground to scoop up more dirt for now.'

"So," Naruko started, trying to break the awkward discomfort Yusuke's discreet interrogation of the village's deputy had put over the dojo-like room, "Can we see the star?"

"I'm sorry, but the star is strictly off limits to outsiders," Akohoshi said, not realizing he had basically nailed his hoax-coffin shut himself.

"Well that's just dumb," Yusuke deadpanned, slowly raising from Naruko's lap, his countenance hardening into a look of annoyance, "How the hell do you expect us to guard something we can't even see?"

"Yeah," Naruko agreed, lifting up an lecturing index finger, "That would narrow out the strategies we coulda taken to protect it."

A tiny strand of awkward sweat ran down the stand-in leader's forehead, creating a trail to the tip of his pointed elf-like nose, 'Damn! Why can't this nosey brat mind his own business?' That was a reason he had hired Genin specifically for this assignment after all. Genin were young, inexperienced, naïve and optimistic soldiers, thus easily susceptible to manipulation.

Unlike experienced, hardened veterans, they would take everything at face-value and wouldn't think to look too deeply into a matter, regardless of how suspicious their briefed assignment may seem.

They were just the simple-minded tools he needed.

A genin with enough common sense to call cock-and-bull on his prohibition of the star was something he did not need, however, regardless of the setback he hadn't factored into his plans, he still had to play along lest he run the risk of revealing himself.

"I'm sorry," He said, closing his eyes and inhaling through his nostrils, "But you see, the star you refer to has been in our custody ever since the very early development stages of our village, back in the reign of the very first Hoshikage," He opened his eyes, less than half pleased to find only the girl was engrossed in his excuse. The male still looked as disinterested as he did moments before, "It is not a possession so insignificant that we can allow every foreigner under the sun not associated with our village to see," To sell his story, he twisted his dilemma on them, "I'm sure your own Kage would be as reluctant as us to let our own shinobi freely examine a precious artifact of yours."

"I guess so," Naruko smiled, scratching her cheek bashfully.

The person the stand-in leader actually wanted to look apologetic unfortunately didn't, to say the least considering the amount of thought he had put into his hastily thought-up excuse.

"Suit yourself," Yusuke dismissed, lowering his head back down on Naruko's lap, turning his head to Akohoshi to give him a sharp glare at complete odds to Naruko's soft, docile look, "Just don't go crying when I give ya that 'I told you so' speech after your treasure gets nabbed."

'What's with these brats? They're like complete opposites!' The blond girl had a naïve look about her, perfectly contrasting the piercing glare her partner had within his eyes.

"Well, yes. I'll be sure to keep your suggestion in mind. Thank you leaf-shinobi."

XXx

An awkward twenty to fifteen minutes passed in Akohoshi's borrowed office before Yusuke's premonition looked dangerously close to coming to fruition in the form of Sumaru surging back within their parameters, panicked desperation marring his face.

"Lord Akohoshi!" He ceased his frantic charge next to Yusuke's toes, bending over at the waist to rest his hands on his knees, a testament to the level of energy spent getting to Akohoshi as fast as inhumanly possible.

"Yes. What is it Sumaru?" He asked, masquerading his seed of worry with a pretence of patient calm.

"It's the star!" Akohoshi's eyes widened at the mention of the village's raise to ascendancy in the land of the Elemental Nations accompanied by a tone of complete dejection. He saw the next few words fly from his young subordinate's mouth as though they were in slow motion, "Someone's taken it!"

"What?!" He raged, his temper only fanned by Yusuke's fits of mocking laughter.

"Wow, really?" He brightened, picking himself up from Naruko's lap. Sumaru hesitated, but nodded nonetheless, initiating Yusuke's hearty laughter anew, "Day~um! That was quick! I figured someone would manage to snatch it with us barred from even seeing it, but I didn't think it would happen so soon!" He slapped his knee repeatedly, "It hasn't even been an hour yet! Hysterical!"

"Why you-?" Sumaru scowled, trying to burn the smug look off of the presumptuous foreigner's face, "Don't speak as if you could've done a better job stopping the thief. Only a shinobi of the Star village can hope to defeat someone using Ninja art: Kajaku!"

"What?!" Sumaru cringed at Akohoshi's enraged tone, slowly twirling around to face him, "Is this true Sumaru? Was the culprit really using Ninja art: Kujaku?"

"Yes, sir," Sumaru bowed, "The culprit specifically used our most sacred jutsu," Confusion marred his features, "I'm not sure how he was able to do so, but he did."

"What does this mean?" Naruko asked.

"What it means, m'dear," Yusuke began to explain, an excited smirk tugging at the edges of his lips, as he stood, extending his hand to Naruko, "Is that this mission just got a whole lot more interesting."

"Oh? Okay!" Naruko passively accepted Yusuke's hand up to her feet.

"Where are you going?" Akohoshi asked, watching Yusuke and Naruko saunter toward the exit with an air of fear around him.

Yusuke stopped, turning his head over his shoulder, a deadpanned look on his countenance, "Duh. Where do you think genius? To get the star back obviously."

"Do you even know where to start looking?" Sumaru asked.

"Not really, but I can get a lock on the guy," Yusuke shrugged, "From there locating him will be a cinch."

"I'm sorry, leaf-shinobi, but I'm afraid you ca-."

"Can't what? Can't do our jobs?" Yusuke challenged.

"Don't speak to Ako-."

"Shut up," Yusuke cut his eyes swiftly to Sumaru, his glare drilling into him so intently he froze, forgetting his words, "You hired us to protect the star, remember? The star got nabbed, so it's our job as the extra muscle to retrieve it," He summarized, turning to Akohoshi, "Any questions?"

"But-."

Yusuke sighed, "Look, if it bothers you so much I'll even leave Naru here as assurance."

"Aw, but why?" Naruko whined, "I wanted to fight too."

"Don't argue with me on this one," Yusuke commanded with a sobered tone that let Naruko know playtime was over.

"Okay," Naruko moaned obediently.

"Besides," Yusuke said, trying to appease his crestfallen girlfriend's needs, tossing his thumb over his shoulder at Sumaru, "I need you to go with Mr Stick-in-the-mud over there back to the scene of the crime and snoop about for clues."

"Hey!" Sumaru's indignant cry was ignored.

"_Ohh_!~" Naruko brightened, widening Yusuke's amused grin. She fixed her cupped hands on her whiskered cheek, squirming her body with excitement as her beautiful blue eyes shone with hope, "You mean like a detective?"

"Yep. This is an important case I'm assigning ya to, so don't screw it up, shamus," He would've felt like Hiei calling Naruko a private detective if her embrace didn't feel like a heavenly cloud shrouding his form.

"Yay! You're the best!" She snuggled into him happily, "In that case, I'll do my very best! You'll see!"

"I have faith in ya," Yusuke assured, propping his hands on hips. Naruko reluctantly stepped out of his warm radiance, nodded, dashed over to Sumaru, and grabbed his hand with enough strength to surprise him.

"C'mon you! We've got work to do!" She exclaimed, dragging him out of the office.

"Hey, wait. I can walk you know," were the last words of futile insistence from Sumaru as he voice faded in the distance to signal their department.

Yusuke spared a grin at the doorway recently used by his content girlfriend before twirling back to the deputy, filing away his passive look of disbelief, "So, pops. How's about it? You still got concerns about me heading out to reclaim what's yours or am I good to go?"

Akohoshi repressed the urge to twitch his eye in annoyance at Yusuke's needle jab at his age or his astonishment at the young man calling him out on his paranoia in his own witty way to offer him a faux-relieved smile, "Well you certainly cover your cases."

"So I do," Yusuke said plainly, narrowing his eyes at the joke, "So can I go now or what?"

"Very well, you may," Akohoshi gave the go-ahead, "But please accomplish the retrieval in the shortest time possible. The star is our lifeblood. I wouldn't know how the villagers would react to the news of our treasure's disappearance."

"Sure," Yusuke said blandly, no sense of vigorous reassurance in his tone as he faced the door, tossing a lazy hand over his shoulder, "I'll have it back by supper. Adios."

Akohoshi tossed him a faux cheery wave with an equally as fake smile plastered on his wrinkled, aged face, which remained there until he could no longer feel Yusuke's presence within the building. Then it faded, his arms lowering to his lap and his countenance scrunching up into a scowl.

"Shiso! Yotaka!" He called out with authority, triggering the smoky materialization of two nondescript star ninja in kneeled positions before him.

"Lord Akohoshi!"

"It appears we have an intelligent thorn in our sides," He smirked.

Shiso and Yotaka exchanged equally petrified looks with each other before turning to their leader.

"Do you think he'll be able to unveil our conspiracy?" The shoulder-length black-haired Shiso asked nervously.

"That is a distinct possibility," Akohoshi admitted, his voice sounding a lot rougher now.

His followers winced, "Then what will we do, boss?" The bald-headed Yotaka asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Akohoshi smirked, "That fool left his little girlfriend here to play 'detective'."

"Oh yeah!" Yotaka brightened.

"All we got to do is capture her to make sure he hands over the star," Shiso smiled.

"And Sumaru."

"What?" Shiso gasped.

"But boss, Sumaru's always been one of the most talented genin in our services," Yotaka reasoned.

"Fool! Don't you think I know that?" Akohoshi admonished, causing his flunkeys to cringe at his harsh tone, "Yes, I do," His smug look returned in full, "But if my suspicions are confirmed and _they _are the ones who took our star, then we'll have all the cards in our hands," Akohoshi's followers both shared looks of uncertainty, but nodded in acquiescence regardless.

"I guess."

XxX

Yusuke was no fool, as he had smartly deluded the deputy into thinking he was. He knew depiction and trickery when he saw it almost as well as Kurama, the kitsune who specialized in depiction, and as a result was an ace at deciphering dishonesty at nigh first glance.

It was how Yusuke was able to so easily detect bullshit on Hokushin's hoax the first time he met him with Raizen's other two monk-like subordinates flanking his sides. Thus as he soon as he left the parameters of the village and up in the security of the vast sky he created a clone by crossing his arms in a X shape, channelling his spirit energy and separating his doppelganger from his very essence like picking a card out of a pack.

"Watch over Naru," He ordered, lowering his arms to his chest, "My bullshit detectors were going off like crazy around that guy. Something tells me he just might decide to hold Naru hostage for reassurance."

"Sure," The doppelganger said, turning to the direction of Naruko's spirit energy signature, "You just make sure to squeeze as much info as you can outta the 'crook' before you pass judgment big-guy."

Was he getting advised by an entity that was essentially an exact replica of himself? Boy, did that feel weird, "Don't have to tell me twice," He turned, offering his clone a roguish fanged grin, "_Me_."

The clone got the jest as it grinned back, offering his originator a two-fingered salute, "Deuces." It then flew off into the distance, leaving Yusuke to concentrate on locating the star, which wasn't hard all things considered.

The moment he set foot onto the village's soil from the sky, he could feel a particularly massive source of energy, by Elemental Nations' standards, somewhere off in the distance. Going by Spirit World's standards, the star would classify as an upper C-class generator, which made it infinitely weaker than his own inherited Spirit Orb from Genkai, the great old bat she was.

"Heh. Lock-on target!" Yusuke hollered, flicking the tip of his nose with his thumb, "This oughta be an interesting chat I reckon." He rocketed off into the distance, leaving only a lengthy trail of azure blue stream trailing in the wake of his speed.

XxX

(Elsewhere - Location Unknown)

Residing on a elevated patch of earth off in an open terrain was a huge boulder, bearing a smaller boulder upon its surface. The deep, gashes just behind the smaller boulder showed it had been removed recently, revealing a secluded hole hid underneath.

Within the narrow space burrowed out in the boulder resided an open tomb with an obvious corpse rested within its confines, the person's flesh having long since decayed away to leave a bare-boned skeleton.

A creamy, light-skinned hand reached down to perch a purple-coloured meteorite on the crossed hand sign of the skeleton, its glowing aura symbolizing its myriad of power pulsing throughout its essence.

In front of the tomb stood a tall woman with creamy legs on show by her brassy knee-high shorts. Her face was shrouded in the darkness of the makeshift cave, but her upper torso was visible. One could see her short sleeved black t shirt underneath her lighter grey flaked jacket, showing her ninja heritage.

"Hotarubi," She said with the faintest hints of a tear marring her voice, "Protect the star, protect Sumaru."

"Hey, nice place you got here, lady," The currently nameless woman froze just before she could run through hand seals at the sound of a mock-compliment, "Real spacey in here too," His voice leaked sarcasm, "Not too shabby."

"Who are you?" She pivoted swiftly on her heels, and now that she was facing the light at the end of the tunnel she gave Yusuke an appreciative view of her long waves of purple-hair with a tinge of pink, two strands framing her sobered countenance and her emerald-green eyes, "How did you find this sacred place young man?" Of course her most eye-catching piece of accessory was the star-village's headband tied around her forehead, which to him, all but unveiled Akohoshi's deception.

Yusuke donned a mock-blank look on his face and tossed an index finger to the entrance, "Oh? I just saw the big-ass rock out in no man's land on my way to find a suitable tree to let the dogs loose."

"That's not what I meant," She sighed, annoyed at his smartass answer.

Yusuke snickered, "I gotcha. Name's Yusuke Urameshi, and if you didn't know," He smirked, brassy in his introduction as he jerked a thumb at himself, "I'm the Leaf's strongest dude and the Star's Village's hired muscle. Nice to meetcha."

Her eyes briefly widened at the implications of the young man being assigned as a bodyguard to her old village, then narrowed as she rationalized his potential reasoning for sniffing her out, "I see. So you're here to retrieve the star for that cursed Akohoshi."

"No, what gave it away?" Yusuke asked satirically, ascertaining there was bad blood between this woman and the village's deputy by the strong emphasis she put on his name.

"In that case, I'll do everything within my power to prevent you from taking it!" She declared, performing her village's patented pyramid shaped hand seal, "Kujaku Myoho (Ninja Art: Kajaku)!" The same peacock feathery wings crafted of pure purple chakra as Sumaru appeared in view at her rear, though she felt disturbed by the actual reaction she got from the young man which contrasted the one she was expecting. Instead of cringing like any normal young man barely out of his teens would've done at the sight of chakra so powerful it was tangible, he laughed as though she was trying to put on a show for his entertainment.

"Oh? You actually think you can defeat me?" Yusuke asked with crossed arms, chortling away, "Man you're funny. Keep 'em coming."

"That arrogance of yours will be your undoing, young man," She said, not much as a threat as it was as advice.

"Really? Then show me."

She sent a barrage of chakra arms flying toward him, only, as soon as Yusuke's eyes glowed with an eerily foreboding gleam she wished they hadn't. A tremendous gale of powerful wind rushed out of his form and collided violently with her chakra arms, brushing them away with little to no effort and carried on in their path toward her. She let out a brief gasp before the tornado wind lifted her off of her feet and slammed her up against the wall, her peacock feather tails dissipating harmlessly.

Her body fell against the cold, hard unforgiving ground beneath her with a dull thud as though she was a ragdoll, "No," It hurt just to talk, "How could a child have such power?" His approaching footsteps were even more foreboding than they were previously now that she had seen a demonstration of his _godly_ power.

"Didn't put up much of a fight in the end, did you?" Yusuke sneered, turning his view to the glowing meteorite, "So I take it this is the "all-important" star the village's deputy was making a fuss about," Her eyes widened as his hand landed square on the star she fought valiantly to pry away from her village's clutches, "Though it looks more like a meteorite than a star if you ask me, but I'll be taking it anyway. Thanks for asking."

"No!" She begged, feeling a rush of adrenaline surge through her, enough to carry her up to a sitting position, "You mustn't return the star back to the village. It will only bring the death and destruction of my people."

Yusuke looked at her and at the star, exchanging glances between the two, truthfully considering her words, "I figured something was dodgy about that Akohoshi-guy's story, and I now know for sure that it is," She stared, shocked the self-proclaimed hired muscle of the star village was seeing things from her point-of-view, "So," Yusuke turned a hard-glance to the woman, moving in front of her and bending down on his haunches, "How's about you tell me the whole story behind this star-doohickey, so I can decide what to do from there. Comprende?"

She sighed, "It all began..."

* * *

**Just to leave you on a "devastating" cliffhanger you guys. Take care**


End file.
